


oh it won't be long ('til the summer comes)

by sheriffandsteel



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Childhood Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Slow Burn, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, Summer Camp, camp counselors, major summertime vibes here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheriffandsteel/pseuds/sheriffandsteel
Summary: There was only one place that Eddie knew he was sure to be away from his mother’s watchful gaze. One place where he felt surrounded by people he loved, one place where he truly felt free. Since he was eight years old Camp Maturin had been Eddie’s safe place. Or at least it was until the unwelcome return of a certain Richie Tozier.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's a brief bullying scene with Bowers in the beginning of this chapter. It should be the only one in the fic.  
> All background characters mentioned are from Stephen King novels although I didn’t write them to bear any resemblance to their actual characters in their source material..  
> Title from 'The Camp Song' by Peter Katz

Nine and a half months of the year Eddie lived under the constant watchful eye of his mother. He would spend weeks at a time trapped inside the house, ailing from some mysterious illness he didn’t even feel the symptoms of but that she swore were there. Nine and a half months of pills and doctor’s offices and ‘ _Don’t run Eddiebear! You know your lungs are delicate._ ’ Nine and a half months of _Yes I took my pills._ and _Sorry Bill I can’t hang out today._ Nine and a half months of being trapped like a fly under his mother’s overbearing thumb. 

Even after he went away to college, he still felt it, still allowed it, which somehow made it all seem even worse somehow, which really wasn’t something that Eddie had thought was possible. His mother made him call her every night by 9pm from his dorm room and he was one hundred percent certain that she had installed some kind of locater app on his phone because the one time he had made the call from the library she had screamed at him so loudly about not lying to his mother that the kid at the next table had looked over at him in concern. 

But after eighteen years Eddie had gotten pretty used to working around his mother’s tricks so after he made his nightly phone call from his dorm his phone would stay there when he went back out to the library. 

None of that mattered at the moment, not the pills not the phone not his mother. None of the past nine and half months mattered at all because now, now it was summer and summer belonged to _him_. 

It had taken a lot of tears and a lot of fights and way more guilt than should ever be placed on a child but at the tender age of eight Eddie had been given the gift of summer and he had clung on to it like a pitbull ever since. 

He had the Denbroughs to thank for it, but he had a lot of things to thank them for and at some point over the years, after countless sleepovers and Mrs. Denbrough washing the mud off his clothes before sending him home so his mom didn’t know that they had been playing outside, Eddie had stopped keeping track of all he owed them. Besides, they called him family and family didn’t keep a tally of things like that. Not true family at least. 

If it hadn’t been for the Denbroughs Eddie wasn’t sure if he ever would have realized that Sonia wasn’t like the other kids’ parents. Sure, he knew that she didn’t go to PTA and she never sent him to school with treats for bake sales like the other moms did. When his first-grade class had a pot luck she had sent Eddie along with napkins and wet-naps as his contribution. On his walk home from school he got caught by Bowers who sat on his chest and shoved one of the wet-naps in his mouth, screaming at him to eat it. It would have been one of the worst moments of his life if another boy hadn’t rounded the corner and caught them. 

Even at age six Bill Denbrough looked taller than most men. Or at least that was what Eddie thought from where he lay pressed into the ground, the gravel digging into the bare skin of his back where his shirt had ridden up. From this angle the sun backlit Bill throwing all the rest of his features into shadow as he bore down on Henry Bowers like an avenging angel. 

Bowers probably wasn’t scared of Bill but even with a stutter his shouts were loud enough to draw the attention of passing grownups and at age seven Bowers was still afraid of adults, or at least of them talking to his father. 

He shot up off Eddie’s chest, pressing his knee against Eddie’s ribs so hard he could swear he heard the bones creek and shoving Eddie’s face into the dirt for good measure. Eddie rolled onto his hands and knees and spit the waded mess out of his mouth, his mind already racing as to what kind of chemicals he might have accidently ingested and what kind of long term affects the damage might have on his body. From the corner of his eye he saw Bowers slam Bill into the wall of the alley but Eddie was too busy wiping his mouth on his t-shirt to say anything in his defense. 

“Yuh-you a-a-alright?” the boy stuttered and if Eddie hadn’t already recognized his lanky frame the stutter would have been the cincher. Bill was in the other first grade class but they’d sat in rows on the bus across from each other last year in the front section reserved for the kindergarteners. 

Maybe it was the comforting familiarity of Bill’s stutter, maybe it was because someone had saved him from yet another one of Bower’s terrors or maybe it was just the lingering taste of chemicals in his mouth but Eddie began to cry. Big wet gasps took over him as he dug in his pocket for his inhaler. Bill came rushing to his side, helping Eddie into a sitting position and shoving the inhaler in Eddie’s mouth when his frantic hands dropped it into the dirt. 

The two had been inseparable ever since. 

It was because of this friendship and Mr. and Mrs. Denbrough’s tenacity that Eddie was given the summer. His mother would have been all too happy to lock him up for the summer to shield him from _the sun’s harmful rays. You’re so delicate Eddie, you burn so easily._ She would have been even happier to keep him home for the summer considering that Bill wasn’t going to be around for him to spend time with but somehow, against all hope, the Denbroughs wore his mother down. 

Which was how one muggy June day in 2008 Eddie climbed into the back of the Denbrough’s station wagon next to Georgie’s car seat and waved goodbye to his mother who stood crying in her housecoat in the middle of the front lawn, waving a tissue at him like he was going off to war. 

Eddie didn’t relax against the seat until the _Welcome to Derry!_ sign was no longer even a speck in the rearview mirror. After that he finally let himself believe that this was real, this was really happening. 

Eddie was certain that the Denbroughs were secretly magicians and they had either bewitched or bewildered Sonia Kaspbrak because against all odds they had done the unthinkable. They had convinced her to part with her dear precious ‘delicate’ son for ten whole weeks. Ten whole weeks where he would be free from her sharp gaze and sharper words. Ten whole weeks where he got to just be a normal kid, even if she had sent him along with bottles full of pills and a note pinned to his collar to give the nurse upon arrival. Eddie didn’t care about that. He would have agreed to take a hundred pills a day if that meant he got to go. 

He was eight years old the year that the miracle of all miracles occurred and Sonia agreed to let Eddie attend sleepaway camp with Bill. She would bemoan that decision endlessly over the years to come but it wouldn’t do her any good. She’d already given Eddie a chance for freedom by that point and he would be damned if he was going to ever give it up. 

“I don't understand why you have to go!” Sonia Kaspbrak wailed as Eddie grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge. It was the plastic disposable kind that Eddie knew was bad for the environment but he told himself it was okay because he would be sure to recycle it when he was finished. He wished that he could use the refillable ones that environmentally conscious Bill used but years of hearing his mother harp about the dangers of drinking tap water were embedded into his brain. 

“It's my job mom.” Eddie repeated for what had to be the seventh time that morning, suppressing a grateful sigh of relief when his phone pinged in his pocket. “Bill’s here, I have to go.” 

“You just got here!” Sonia cried, trailing after him to the door where he shouldered his backpack and gripped the handle of his rolling suitcase. The others could tease his luggage choices all they liked; his back would thank him years from now. 

“I told you when I was leaving when I got back from school.” Eddie sighed as he leaned forward to dutifully kiss her cheek. It had long since stopped bothering him that he didn’t have to bend down to do so. His short stature was something he had come to terms with. Or at least that was what he liked to tell himself. “I’ll write you every week.” he promised knowing that he would in fact do so. Weekly letters were by far easier than the daily ones that she had required he send back when he had been a camper. Now that he was twenty and an adult, she could only force so many rules on him. 

“Will I even get to see you before you go running off back to school?” Sonia asked, laying her tears on thick as Eddie opened the door and struggled out it with her trying to tug the suitcase back inside as he rolled it out. 

“I don’t know. I don’t have next semester’s schedule yet mom.” Eddie sighed finally succeeding in getting his suitcase out and onto the porch. From the corner of his eye he saw Bill’s car idling at the curb, Bill playing with his phone and not even glancing at the Kaspbrak’s house. He (and every neighbor on the block) were well used to the dramatics that occurred whenever Eddie left the house for an extended period of time. 

“Why can’t you just spend the summer with me?!” Sonia bemoaned, slumping against the doorframe in an attempt to make herself look even more pitiful. 

Eddie bit his tongue to keep from saying what he really wanted, that summers were his. He had spent so many summers free of her that the thought of tainting his happy memories of the season by spending even one with her was unthinkable at this point. Summers were _his_ and he had fought too hard and too long to ever give them up to anyone, especially to her. 

“I made a commitment mom.” Eddie sighed bidding her goodbye and saying an ‘I love you’ he had long since stopped being sure he meant. As he wrestled his suitcase into the trunk of Bill’s car Eddie tried to ignore the pitying looks of Mrs. Andrews gardening across the street as his mother wailed from the front porch. 

“You love that camp more than you love your own mother!” 

Eddie got into the car without bothering to correct her. 

Besides, she wasn’t wrong. 

Camp Maturin sat in a deeply secluded wooded area in upstate Maine, nearly four hours away from Derry. Having made the drive for the last twelve summers the sights were like familiar old friends to Eddie and he could mark how far away they were by the landmarks flashing by his window. The gnarled tree by the dirt road forking off to the sheep farm was the halfway mark which meant that the little diner with the best milk shakes Eddie had ever tasted was only fifteen minutes away. Even though it was only a little after nine in the morning they went inside and had one and the taste of chocolate lay heavy on Eddie’s tongue when they got back in the car, this time with him in the driver’s seat. 

As he carefully merged back onto the road he looked over at Bill where he was browsing through Eddie’s playlists to pull up his one helpfully labeled ‘driving’. The soothing tones of Barry Manilow filled the car as Eddie decided that if he wanted to actually give Bill some warning now was the time to do it. 

“I got an email from Stan.” he said nonchalantly, keeping his eyes on the road and pretending he didn’t notice how Bill’s whole body tensed. Judging by that reaction Eddie decided he had been right to not tell Bill about the email when he’d received it three weeks ago. All Bill would have done was stress himself out and wind himself up tighter than Eddie. “He’s coming back this summer.” 

“Oh?” Bill asked casually, dropping Eddie’s phone into the center consul and tapping his fingers against his thighs. “That’s g-g-great.” 

Eddie barely held back a sharp intake of breath at the sound of Bill’s stutter. Years of speech therapy had rendered it nearly nonexistent except when he was afraid or upset. They both chose to ignore its reappearance and Eddie cast his mind around desperately for a conversation topic to fill the silence. 

“Who do you think will win capture the flag this year?” he asked, trying to keep his voice bright. 

“Hmm?” Bill muttered, before tearing his gaze away from the window to regard Eddie. “Oh, we’ll d-defend our title.” Bill said assuredly, relaxing back into his seat as he gratefully took the distraction that Eddie had tossed at him. 

“We’re so lucky Mike doesn’t have a cabin and is ineligible.” Eddie laughed, thinking about their athletic friend and fellow counselor. 

“Thank god for t-t-that.” Bill muttered his face darkening like a cloud passing over the sun as he turned back to the window again. 

Eddie cast him a few curious looks at that, as far as he knew Bill and Mike had parted last summer on good terms. Deciding Bill was just stressed out about the Stan sized bomb Eddie had dropped in his lap he decided not to press him on it. He reached out to turn the volume of the radio up a little to fill the silence in the car as they drove on, Eddie’s shoulders lightening with every mile they drove as if all his worries were staying behind him. 

The long tree lined drive up to the staff parking lot looked as comfortingly the same as it did in Eddie’s memory. They’d turned off the air conditioning and rolled down the windows the moment they had passed under the wooden camp sign at the entrance road and the car was filled with the scent of dirt and pine trees. The smell of fresh air had terrified Eddie that first summer. Sure, he had been over the moon at the thought of summer camp and spending the whole summer getting to play with Bill but by the time the Denbroughs were dropping them off it took everything in Eddie not cling to them and beg them to take him home to his mother. 

No such desires filled him now as Eddie all but sprang from the car the moment he got the key out of the ignition. He smiled out at the familiar worn wooden buildings and dirt lot they were parked in, stretching his hands up over his head and feeling his joints pop after their long car ride. Across the car Bill unfolded his taller body and did the same thing. 

“I guess we’re the first ones here.” Eddie announced, looking around the near empty lot. The only other cars where the familiar beige sedan of the terrifying camp nurse, Annie Wilkes, who seemed to all but live at the camp and whose car had never seemed to move once in the three years Eddie had been in this lot. The only other vehicle was the sun faded jeep of the camp’s owner and director, Hilda Reppler. 

Seeing no signs of either women (which was a relief in Wilkes case) Eddie ducked back into the car to grab his phone. He had promised his mother that he would text her upon arrival if he had any service. The last few years he hadn’t had even a splotchy signal and he was relieved to see the familiar little ‘no service’ announcement in the top corner of the phone where the bars usually were. Satisfied that he had at least tried to uphold his promise Eddie powered his phone down before leaning back into the car to stuff it into the glovebox where it would remain until they headed back down the mountain in eleven weeks. 

Grabbing his trustee fannypack from the floor of the backseat Eddie climbed back out of the car and tossed the keys to Bill who pocketed them as they made their way to the staff housing building where Hilda could usually be counted on to be found on staff arrival day. Bill didn’t bother to lock the car and they both left their bags in the trunk. They knew from the past two summers as counselors that they wouldn’t unpack their bags until nearly sundown. 

Despite the fact that Eddie had been inside the staff housing cabin numerous times he had never actually slept in it. It was a large wooden building with a front common room (that also doubled as a staff break room) that he had spent many hours in and six bedrooms with two beds each. The staff that slept there was the kitchen staff and the counselors with specialized skills that didn’t oversee cabins full of campers. A week into Eddie’s first summer working at the camp instead of being a camper himself he had thought they were lucky but not long after that he began to truly form a bond with his campers and now he wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, not even a night sleeping without seven small children giggling and tossing and turning in the dark. 

“Boys!” Hilda’s familiar voice cried as they stepped into the familiar room with its worn plaid couches looking like they’d been there since the mid-eighties and the crooked bookshelf filled with books likely even older than that. “So good to see you!” 

Bill hugged the woman with familiar ease but she simply reached over and squeezed Eddie’s shoulder. Touching other people wasn’t always easy for him, even the thought of getting other peoples’ germs on him always made him feel sick. Letting Hilda touch his shoulder was way closer than he let most people get. 

“Anyone else here yet?” Bill asked, his eyes darting around the room like someone was going to pop up from behind the couch. 

“You two are the first, like usual.” Hilda grinned at them both before clapping her hands together in a familiar gesture. “Come help me set up the games.” 

The next hour passed quickly as they helped drag out wooden beams and set up contraptions of PVC pipe that had terrified Eddie the first time he saw them but that he could now maneuver with ease. The sun beating down on their backs made Eddie’s shirt start to stick to him with sweat and he was grateful when the sound of cars pulling into the lot allowed them to stop and rest. 

Staff training officially started at noon but considering there was always at least one or two people waylaid by traffic or a late start they never did anything important until all of the staff arrived. There were eighteen counselors who participated in the week long training before the camp opened. The first year Eddie had been a counselor Hilda had tried to get the rest of the staff from the nurse to the maintenace man to participate in the team building exercises as well but that proved to be an exercise in futility and the idea was abandoned after less than an hour. 

As counselors trickled into the building where Bill and Eddie were taking a much-needed break Eddie recognized nearly every face. That was the thing about Camp Maturin, once you got a taste of it you kept on coming back. Eddie didn’t want to think about what he was going to do in two years when he finished college and had to get a job where he couldn’t take the summers off to spend them here. The very idea of it made his chest hurt and his hands dig in his pockets for an inhaler he had long since trashed so he didn’t let his mind stray there very often. 

Eddie broke off from the polite small talk about college credits he was having with four-time counselor Carrie White at the sight of two familiar faces in the doorway. Carrie waved him away towards them and Eddie smiled at her gratefully before speeding over and catching Bev and Ben both around the neck to pull them to him in a hug. They were in the very small group of people he could touch without dry heaving. 

After a moment Eddie pulled away to grin at them as Bill came up from behind him and took his place in the group hug. 

“The others here yet?” Bev asked curiously as she pulled away from Bill, her eyes scanning the room behind them. 

Eddie shook his head no as they stepped into the room, heading to one of the few unoccupied corners to cluster together to talk. He knew that they shouldn’t form ‘cliques’ as his high school principal called them but they weren’t really a clique, they were a club. The Loser’s Club as one particularly dreadful camper had dubbed them that first summer they were complete, all seven of them slotted together like pieces of a puzzle. 

They were so deep in a conversation about the ‘magnificent’ horse that Ben had seen on the drive up that none of them noticed the person approaching them until Mike’s familiar voice cut into the conversation with a polite ‘hello’ and they all but dragged him into the center of a group hug while Eddie tried not to be jealous that Mike’s voice seemed to have gotten deeper over the summer, again. 

“Gang’s almost all back together again!” Ben cried happily as he smiled at Beverly and threaded their fingers together. Eddie rolled his eyes at their cuteness; it always took him a few days to get used to their casual displays of affection. 

“Stan should be here any minute, he’s coming back this summer.” Eddie piped in, not sure if Stan had told any of the others. Judging from the way Mike and Ben’s smiles jumped higher he hadn’t. Eddie bit his lip in worry, hoping Stan hadn’t been hoping to keep it a surprise. “It’s a whole Loser’s Club reunion this year!” Eddie was grateful that no one tried to correct him on that since it wasn’t entirely true but considering that he’d spent the last three years whittling away one member of the club from his memory it felt plenty true to him. 

“This is going to be the best summer.” Beverly sighed in happiness as she rested her head against Ben’s arm. “I just wish the others would get here already so it can start.” 

Eddie’s brow furrowed in confusion at that. There were no ‘others’ to arrive, there was just Stan. Unless of course she meant the other counselors because he was pretty sure one of the water instructors wasn’t here yet. Certain that had to be who she meant (mainly because he didn’t dare let himself even consider who else she could be referring too) Eddie let himself relax and rejoin the easy conversation and laughter of his dearest friends. 

“What no ‘welcome back’ banner?” a voice said impassively from behind him and Eddie felt a smile stretch over his face even as he watched Bill across from him adopt a look like he’d just swallowed an apple. 

Eddie turned quickly, hoping to give Stan a hug and distract him while Bill took a moment to readjust his face (seriously what the hell had happened between them and more importantly how did Eddie miss it?). Before he could reach Stan however a flash of sunlight glinted off of a pair of glasses the person beside Stan was wearing and the light shone directly into Eddie’s eyes, causing him to pause and blink spots from his vision as a wave of cold terror began to course over him like someone had cracked an egg of fear over his head and the yolk of it was now slipping down his shirt. 

Swallowing the sudden nauseous rolling of his stomach Eddie felt his fingers curl into his hands hard enough for the nails to bite into his palms and he narrowed his eyes in a glare as the sheepish voice of the final seventh member (or _ex_ member if you asked Eddie) of the Loser’s Club said brightly, “Hiya Spaghetti.”


	2. Chapter 2

Whenever he made a disgusted face as a child (or really any face that wasn’t a smile or a placid look of defeat) his mother would always snap at him that if he wasn’t careful his face would stay stuck that way. After years of that tirade Eddie had learned how to school his features into a mask of indifference, his expressions were minuscule and all but unreadable except to those who knew him best. 

All of his years of practice at schooling his expression flew out the window as he glared at the seventh ( _EX!_ Eddie’s mind screamed frantically) member of the Loser’s Club. 

“Richie! Finally!” Bev cried happily, her shoulder jostling Eddie’s as she darted around him to tackle Richie in a hug. Bev’s comment about the ‘others’ finally made sense and Eddie chewed on the inside of his cheek as he realized this meant that Beverly had _known_ Richie fucking Tozier was going to be ruining Eddie’s summer and she hadn’t even thought to warn him about it. 

After Richie pulled away from her he looked back over at Eddie, his gaze falling on the purple fannypack around his waist and his eyes light up as he beamed. “Holy shit, did you know those things are starting to come back? Always knew you were a trendsetter Kaspbrak.” 

_Eddie shifted from foot to foot nervously as he lingered with Bill outside of the cabin that would be their home for the next ten weeks. The Denbroughs had already left but the other kids that would be staying with them were still saying goodbyes to their parents. Eddie tugged on the zipper of his fannypack, reaching inside to make sure it was still stocked with his tiny bottles of bug spray and sunscreen, the feeling of the plastic bottles calming him down._

_“What the fuck is that?” an unfamiliar voice suddenly asked with a laugh and Eddie looked up to see a scrawny kid shove a pair of the thickest lens glasses Eddie had ever seen higher up his nose. “What are you? A seventy-year-old tourist or a drug runner?”_

_Something weird happened with the kid’s voice and he seemed to say each sentence in a different accent. Eddie frowned at the taller boy before crossing his arms over his chest while hoping that this boy wasn’t going to end up being another Bowers. He had been looking forward to a bully free summer._

_The other boy didn’t seem to be done teasing him yet because he continued. “Are fannypacks going to be on the runway this year? We gonna spot them in the catalogs?_

_“You’re talking about fashion?” Eddie snapped, cutting off what was looking to be gearing up to a long rant, as he looked at the boy’s neon colored Hawaiian print shirt. Eddie hadn’t even been aware they made clothes that bright. “Have you ever looked in a mirror?”_

_Bill turned to look at him in surprise, Eddie usually didn’t stand up for himself especially around unknown people. To Eddie surprise and relief, the other boy didn’t get mad, instead he tipped his head back and laughed in delight._

_“What you lack in taste you make up for in spunk!” the boy threw his arm around Eddie’s neck pulling him tight to his side. “Richie Tozier at your service!”_

_“Eddie Kaspbrak.” Eddie said trying to worm his way out of Richie's grip. Eddie had a feeling this was a very weird kid._

_Richie let him pull away from him and he smiled so widely at Eddie that he could see a tooth growing in the back of his mouth. “Kaspbrak I’ve got a feeling you and I are going to be very good friends.”_

Eddie narrowed his eyes at Richie as the memory washed over him, wondering when exactly that premonition had gone so wrong. 

“Counselors! Now that we’re all here let’s go over some ground rules before we begin.” Hilda clapped her hands at the front of the room causing the hugs around Eddie to halt as everyone turned their attention to her. 

The rules were the same as they had been the last two summers and would undoubtedly be for the next endless amounts of summer to come. It was a pretty short list and Eddie had no problems following it. No smoking or drinking on the grounds, no PDA in front of campers, no profanity, don’t let any of your campers die etc. As Hilda continued her speech to go over the outline of the training week (again, no changes from the previous years) Eddie tuned her out, opting instead to glare at the back of Richie’s head and wondering if he glared hard enough if he could set him on fire. 

The sound of clapping drew Eddie back to the present and he gave his head a slight shake like that would knock the memories free and followed the others as they headed out the door to the lawn where the games Bill and him had set up stood shining in the sun. 

Hilda was a big believer that her counselors shouldn’t ask their campers to do something if they themselves hadn’t done it first. These games would get set back up again in a week when the campers arrived and it would be pure chaos as over eighty children tried to play every game at once all while trying to pretend they weren’t missing their parents. 

For now, though no one was trying to discreetly brush away tears as they went through the forced bonding exercises. There were only three new counselors this summer and one of those was Richie who had spent a decade of his childhood spending summers here so he knew the games well. 

The trust games went pretty smoothly to start with, they always started with the easiest one, the one where they all formed a giant circle and held hands with a hula hoop resting on the clasped hands of two people. They then had to get the hoop all the way around the circle without anyone letting go of each other or they had to start over. Eddie made sure he was standing between Bill and Stan so that he didn’t spend the game trying to break Richie’s fingers. He noticed the looks the two kept sending each other the whole time but he couldn’t exactly ask Bill about it in front of the rest of the staff so Eddie shoved down his curiosity for a later date. 

Next, they moved onto Eddie’s least favorite game, the Web. It was a stand of PVC pipe with thick cords strung around it making a web of different size openings. Their mission was to get every person from one side of it to the other with only one person going through each of the openings and without anyone touching the cords. It was Eddie’s least favorite of the games because ever since he was eight the weird triangle shaped hole in the top left corner had been his. The problem wasn’t with the opening itself it was with the fact that to reach it he had to be completely at the mercy of other people to both lift him through it and to catch him on the other side. All Eddie really had to do was stay stiff and not let his fingers brush the cord. That had been easier in years past when he didn’t have the knowledge that Richie was going to be one of the ones catching him. 

“I swear those are the same shorts you had when we were thirteen.” Richie laughed as he helped Bill set Eddie back on his feet and Eddie resisted the urge to kick dirt in his face as he tried to brush off the phantom feeling of Richie’s hand where it had touched his bare thigh. 

“Shut the fuck up Tozier.” he hissed before turning back to the Web to help Sue crawl out of one of the bottom webs. 

“Missed you too Eds.” Richie whispered in his ear causing Eddie to bite his tongue in anger, both at the nickname and to keep himself from snapping that Richie clearly hadn’t missed him very much or he would have tried to talk to him at least once in the last three years. 

Next up was the Net. It was pretty much the Web but horizontal with about a foot of distance between the ground and its cords. With this one they climbed under it one at a time and then had to climb out by going through one of the openings, again without touching any of the cords. The Net was much easier than the Web if only for the fact that Eddie didn’t have to rely on anyone picking him up to get through it. There was less trust to this one and more strategy. 

“Don’t go through that one! Bev already did!” Mike called out to Richie just as he was about to sit up under an octagonal shaped hole. 

“Marsh! You thwart me!” Richie cried in mock indignation as she laughed. Somehow Richie managed to unfold his lanky body through one of the smaller openings using Ben’s offered hand to steady himself as he leaped outside of the Net. Eddie held his breath as he did so, certain he was going to catch his foot and trip and they’d have to start all over. Somehow, he made it over and cleared and Eddie let out a breath of relief. Richie grinned at him from across the way as if he had heard the sound and Eddie glared at him again, barely resisting the urge to flip him off. 

Two more people went before it was Eddie’s turn. He army crawled across the grass until he was almost to the edge of the Net. There were two unused spaces near the right corner and he was certain he could fit through either of them, he just had to decide which was easier. Reaching the corner he flipped over onto his back to peer up at the spaces. He shivered at the feeling of grass tickling his neck and shoved down thoughts of _Dirt! Germs! Bugs!_ that were pretty much a background noise to his thoughts all summer. All the dirt and germs and bug bites and sunburns were a small price to pay for his summer freedom. 

“What’s taking so long Eduardo? You need some mood music?” The sun above Eddie suddenly went out of focus as a figure leaned over him. Eddie glared up at Richie before deciding the opening on the right would be easier. Carefully he sat up, making sure his shoulders cleared the cords before he rose a little further and got to his knees. 

Despite his movements Richie was undeterred and began to sing, very loudly and very offkey. “On top of spaghetti all covered in che-” 

Eddie shot to his feet and out of the Net faster than he had ever done, high stepping over the edge to all but tackle Richie, pressing his hand over his mouth to get him to stop singing that fucking song. He had heard Richie sing it so many times over the summers that one verse and it would be stuck in his head for the next eight months. 

“Not fucking funny asshole.” Eddie breathed, glaring at Richie as he removed his hand from his mouth. 

Richie grinned at him before shoving his glasses up his nose. “Au contraire my dear boy.” he replied doing his British guy voice that Eddie was never going to admit but had improved greatly. “It was very funny indeed.” 

Never mind the bugs and such. Richie Tozier was the price Eddie had to pay for his summers. 

After a few more trust exercises they ended with the Beam which was probably the most time consuming of them all. 

The Beam was about eighteen feet long and maybe four inches wide. Everyone took place standing on it facing out rather than in a line. Eddie ended up on the right edge because it was as far as he could get from Richie down on the left. 

“Okay we’ll start by having January birthdays over here.” Hilda called from the grass in front of them pointing to the side Eddie stood on. He felt his stomach drop as her hand waved over to where Richie stood on the other end of the beam. “And December birthdays over there.” 

Eddie cursed under his breath as everyone began to call out their birthdays to see who had to move where. Everyone groaned when he told them his was November. That meant he had to get all the way down the beam, around nearly seventeen people, without any of them stepping off the Beam and touching the ground. 

They decided Eddie should go first before everyone else did their smaller shuffles around the beam. If he stepped off the only person who had to restart was himself, not the entire row. His first attempt he got his wrist tangled in Betty Ripsom’s bracelets and sent both of them stumbling down off the Beam. On his second attempt he was trying to get around Bill and misjudged where he was placing his foot ending with him stepping backwards onto the grass rather than risk knocking Bill to the floor and falling on top of him. 

Finally, on his third attempt Eddie remembered how to move along the Beam and he began to make pretty good time. Some people knelt down so he could high step over them (this was mostly the girls as Eddie was too short to step over any of the guys’ larger frames) and some people he gripped hands with and carefully stepped around them, leaning backwards so that he wasn’t too close into any of their spaces. The Beam was always a challenge for him as it meant he had to touch other people. 

He made it around Mike and Richie grinned at him, the end of the line. “Want me to kneel Eds?” Richie asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. 

“Shut the fuck up Tozier!” Eddie snapped already annoyed enough that he was going to have touch Richie. He didn’t need his innuendos as well. 

“Language Kaspbrak! Get that out of your system now!” Hilda called from the grass where she was supervising. 

Eddie narrowed his eyes at Richie before begrudgingly accepting the hand that Richie offered him. He made it to the other side of Richie faster than he made it around anyone, all but swinging himself around him. Richie wobbled for a second as Eddie made it to the end and Eddie felt his heart leap into his throat. He did not make it this far and touch that many people to have someone else fall off when he got to the end. On instinct he reached out to grip Richie’s side to help center him until Richie stopped wobbling. 

Steady again Richie grinned at him wolfishly and Eddie dropped his hand from him in disgust. The rest of the Beam still had to rearrange and he was already over this game. “Nobody better fucking fall!” he called down the line earning some laughs as the others started to arrange to their birthdays. 

“Toodles Eddiekins.” Richie said, giving him a little wave as he started to make his way to the other side of the Beam where his birthday month was. Eddie growled at the nickname and only the thought of having to start over himself stopped him from reaching forward and pushing Richie. 

They did three more variations on the Beam before Hilda decided they were all properly bonded or she just got sick of listening to them all complain about how hungry they were getting. They would pack up the equipment after dinner so she waved them forward to the mess hall. Stomach growling Eddie followed Bill down the slopping green field to the large building in the center of the camp. He really needed to remember to start eating more than a milkshake on the drive to camp but he was always too nervous to hold anything down. 

Whooping from beside him caught his attention and Eddie turned to watch a yelling Richie race across the field towards the building, his garish Hawaiian shirt flapping back behind him as he ran. 

“That Tozier hasn’t changed a bit.” Betty laughed from beside him and Eddie snorted in response. He really didn’t understand why she made it sound like a compliment. Richie was acting the same as he had when he was nine. As far as Eddie was concerned, Richie's hyperactivity and outlandish actions had been annoying as a child but now as an adult it was downright detestable. 

_Camp food wasn’t all that bad but the drink that they called ‘bug juice’ left a lot to be desired. Its name didn’t do it any favors and Eddie had steadfastly refused to even try it his first summer. His second summer though Richie didn’t seem to be backing down and every meal he placed a cup in front of Eddie and stared at him with puppydog eyes trying to guilt him into drinking it._

_“C’mon Eds! Even Stan tried it!” Richie cried in exacerbation halfway through the summer._

_Eddie shook his head and pushed the cup closer to Richie’s side of the table. He didn’t bother to voice his opinion that Stan had only tried it to get Richie to shut up. Besides, he hadn’t drank it since then._

_“Stan has poor taste.” Eddie said instead, shooting Stan a grin to show he didn’t mean the words as he added, “He is friends with you outside of camp after all.”_

_Richie titled his head back and laughed loudly causing several people at neighboring tables to look their way curiously. “Eds pops off a good one!”_

_Eddie glared at him and Richie tried to lean over the table to physically poor the juice into his mouth. It resulted in a very quick tussle that got juice all over Eddie except in his mouth and landed Richie and him both on kitchen cleanup crew for a week._

_In the end Bill got Eddie to try a cup of bug juice by telling him he wouldn’t let Richie try to dump it on him again. It was too sticky and sweet and it left Eddie with a sugar high that made him crash for three hours when he came off it. Eddie really didn’t see why Richie liked the stuff so much but as the summer wore on he realized that Richie never even drank the stuff. It annoyed Eddie to no end that all that teasing and goading him was for a drink Richie himself didn't even like._

Sighing as he reached the mess hall Eddie went inside to find Richie sitting on top of one of the tables and trying to shove a forkful of some disgusting looking concoction into Stan’s mouth while he glared up at him and crossed his arms over his chest. 

Eddie followed after Bill to the line where the food sat and tried to ignore a sinking feeling that this was about to be the longest summer of his life.


	3. Chapter 3

After dinner and clearing up the equipment from the team building exercises Hilda assigned the counselors to where they would be bunking for the next week. Once the campers got there most of the counselors would be bunking in the cabins with their campers while a few who didn’t have a cabin stayed in the staff housing building. But for the next week, in the idea of more team bonding, the counselors would all be bunking in four cabins in an effort for them to be even more of a team by the time the campers arrived. 

Eddie wheeled his suitcase through the grass while he listened to Mike’s tale of his football team’s victory at their championship game and tried not to glare holes into the back of Richie’s head in front of him. He’d told himself at dinner that he was going to be normal around Richie and normal Eddie, well actually normal Eddie was often glaring at Richie if the ten summers they’d spent together were any indication of their normal behavior. Eddie decided to keep glaring, grateful that Richie was not going to be in his cabin for the next week. If that had happened Eddie was pretty sure he would strangle him at some point and he really did not want to go to jail. 

Last year the counselors had stayed on the west side of camp in the girls’ cabin section so this year they were on the east in the boys’ section. Eddie was secretly relieved about this. It didn’t matter to him that the cabins had been the girls last years, there were really no discernable differences between them. Eddie was just used to approaching the camp from the east and it had taken him a few hours last year to reorient himself to the direction change and he had an excellent sense of direction. Poor Bill was so turned around he kept showing up late to everything. 

Reaching their cabin Eddie was quick to claim a bottom bunk near the window. It wasn’t as hot as it would be in the weeks to come but it was still nice to be able to feel the breeze at night. Joining him in the cabin were Mike, Ben, and one of the water instructors, Arthur Baker. 

Arthur had worked there for five summers and had been there while the other three were campers so they were all friendly with each other. Their friendship with him was by no means Losers level but then again, they didn’t reach that with anyone else in camp or in their home lives. But they were all friends with the counselors and Eddie even texted with Carrie and Betty sometimes during the year. It was mostly back and forth exchanges of memes but considering that was more than he had gotten from a certain tousled haired member of the Loser Club in the last three years Eddie thought they were pretty high on his list of friends. 

The group fell into easy conversation as they settled in for the week. They didn’t bother to unpack too much; the cabin assignments weren’t given out until the end of the week but chances were none of them would be staying in Spruce cabin this summer. No point to unpack all of their things just to pack them up again in a week. Still, they settled in enough to be comfortable and as they did so Eddie spared a thought to how Bill was handling being in such close quarters with Stan after his reaction in the car this morning. Honestly Eddie was just grateful that he wasn’t having to spend a week trapped in the same close space as Richie. He had already spent ten summers holed up in the same cabin as him, he did not need even one more night of that experience. 

“Man, I’m glad I don’t have to stay in one of these.” Arthur sighed, stretching out long on his bunk and crossing his arms behind his head. 

“Same here.” Mike agreed as mimicked his position. “I don’t know if I could handle seven little roommates.” 

“You handled living with us.” Ben reminded him looking up from the headphones he was trying to untangle. 

“That’s different, we were all the same age.” Mike reminded him with a grin as he turned over onto his stomach to peer down at Ben’s bunk. 

Eddie wanted to chime in that they’d had to deal with Richie so their idea of the cabin was a bit skewed as to what it actually was but he didn’t want anyone to ask him about his current vendetta against the other man so instead he opted to change the subject. “What games are you planning on running this year Mikey?” 

Mike beamed over at him, resting his head on his arms with a thoughtful look on his face. He was in charge of organizing all of the sports games over the summer. Most of the time it was just two or three cabins at a time but every Sunday they had a big camp wide game and Mike usually went all out and created some insane new thing for the campers to play at least once. 

He happily told them about his latest creation, which somehow involved both tennis rackets and frisbees. Eddie honestly had a bit of a hard time following the rules but he figured it’d be easier to understand when he actually had the equipment in hand. Thankfully he was spared from having to come up with something to say when Mike was finished by Arthur jumping into the conversation. 

“Who are you betting will win the flag this year?” 

“We can’t bet yet!” Eddie protested indignantly. “Cabins aren’t even assigned yet.” 

“So? Half the time it’s the counselors that win the thing.” Arthur said. 

“Counselors aren’t even supposed to play.” Eddie argued. 

“No, we just had really shitty counselors. Or just lazy.” Mike laughed, probably thinking about the ones they’d had over the years. 

“I hope my team wins this year. We weren’t even close last summer.” Ben sighed in disappointment. 

“You weren’t as bad as us.” Eddie reminded him. He’d had the youngest group of campers last summer and their flag was taken the first day. They hadn’t honestly tried very hard to get it back and Eddie had been too busy trying to keep Danny from falling apart with homesickness that he didn’t really encourage them too much. Eddie gave a shrug as he thought over who stood the best chance to win based on counselor alone. “Bill will probably try to defend his title.” 

“Billiam isn’t going to win this year!” A voice suddenly announced from the open doorway. “There’s a new talent back in town boys!” 

“It wouldn’t be new talent if its back dumbass.” Eddie snapped as he refastened his fannypack and glared at Richie’s lanky frame in the doorway. 

A look of giddy delight crossed Richie’s features and he pointed at Eddie with a grin. “Aha! Eddie Spaghetti just admitted I’m talented. You all witnessed it!” 

“That’s not-” Eddie sighed and shook his head. He’d learned over the years it was best not to encourage Richie if you wanted him to stop. “Forget it.” he mumbled as Richie came into the cabin, looking around with a smile before he flopped down onto the bunk beside Ben. 

“This place sure brings back the memories.” he said with a wink, tapping his temple with a finger. 

Eddie went back to straightening his area as he tried to stop his own memories of the summer he’d spent in this cabin. 

_“Welcome home gents!” Richie cried adopting a new accent that Eddie had never heard him try before. He couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to be British or French and he frowned at Richie as he followed after him into the cabin._

_“Where are you trying to go with that accent?” he asked as he rolled his suitcase to a stop beside the bottom bunk furthest from the window. He knew from last summer that they usually left the window open during July and while there were screens Eddie didn’t want to be close to it in case any bugs managed to squeeze through. Bugs carried so many diseases, especially mosquitos and there were always bunches of those floating around at night. Eddie was suddenly hit with a flash on panic that he hadn’t brought enough bug spray when his worries were cut off by Richie slinging an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close._

_“I’m going wherever you’ll take me Eds old chap!” Richie cried happily, tipping an imaginary top hat at Eddie who glared at him over the nickname while Bill laughed and Stan sighed in the corner._

_“Hey I learned a new song just for camp.” Richie said brightly, shoving Eddie away so that he could stand in the middle of the cabin and grin at them. The other three boys they were sharing with that year looked over at him curiously, they were all new this year and not yet sure of how to respond to Richie’s antics. Eddie knew the feeling, half of the time he wasn’t sure either._

_“Why would you learn a song for camp?” Eddie asked with a scoff, rubbing at his neck where Richie had accidently pinched it. He could already feel a knot forming between his shoulders._

_“In case I need to serenade you Eds my dear!” Richie continued speaking over Eddie’s snap of ‘don’t call me Eds!’. Richie threw his arms wide like he was on stage and began belting, very loudly and very off key._

_“On top of spaghetti all covered in cheese! I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed!” Richie continued through the song, adopting several different Voices as he did so and by the time he was finished the entire cabin was laughing, even their stern looking counselor._

_“You’re the worst singer I’ve ever heard.” Eddie laughed from where he had crumbled onto his bunk. Richie grinned wildly at him before jumping onto the bed next to him, making Eddie squawk as he nearly landed on his lap._

_“Since you like the song so much I think I’ll make it our song!” Richie cried, wrapping his arms around Eddie and resting his chin familiarly in the crook of Eddie’s shoulder. It was so easy to fall back into their comfort around each other that it was strange to remember this was the first time they had seen each other in a year._

_“Yuck, is that really what you call a love song?” Eddie asked with an eyeroll that turned into a groan of disgust when Richie pressed a wet kiss onto his cheek._

_“Don’t worry Spaghetti! Your mom loves it when I sing to her!” Richie laughed as Eddie shoved him off of him onto the floor, both ignoring the warning ‘Hey.’ from the counselor. Eddie really hoped that ‘spaghetti’ wasn’t going to stick as a nickname but considering it was a lot better than the other option of ‘meatball’ he figured he wouldn’t complain, at least not too much._

Managing to deflect most of Richie’s attention off of him (figures now he’d want to talk to Eddie) and onto Mike and Ben Eddie managed to slip out of his cabin and headed two down to where some of the girls were bunking. Like his cabin their door was propped open but he still knocked on the doorframe before entering. 

“Eddie! Always such a gentleman.” Beverly smiled at him before grabbing his hand to pull him down beside her on her bunk. “Your cabin getting a bit too stuffy?” she asked, nudging his shoulder with a knowing look. 

“Just readjusting to camp life. You know how it is.” Eddie lied with a shrug as he watched Audra struggle to choose between which sweatshirt to wear to the campfire. They were both purple and looked the same to him but he had brought two fannypacks to camp so he felt like he couldn’t judge other people for their fashion choices. 

After another hour of hanging out with Beverly and the girls (which was thankfully uninterrupted) it had finally gotten dark enough for them to see the familiar flicker of the campfire in the distance on the lakeshore. Everyone gave little cheers before grabbing their shoes and sweaters and heading out to wait for the others to join them from the other three cabins. 

They walked down in a pack together but the Losers all drifted and hung back until the seven of them were bringing up the rear. Eddie let Beverly loop her arm through his and watched her do the same with Ben on her other side. Eddie tried to catch Bill’s eye to see if he was doing okay after so much time with Stan but the other man studiously refused to meet his gaze. 

The campfire was bright and delightfully warm compared to the chilly night air. Eddie sat as close to it as he dared and enjoyed listening to the others’ conversations and laughter floating around him while Mike plucked a tune away on his old guitar that was a hand-me-down from his grandfather. 

Eddie watched as everyone toasted marshmallows and cheered and groaned when they light on fire. He watched their antics with laughter while he ate his marshmallows cold because there was no way he was about to eat food roasted over an open flame. Who knew what kind of bacteria and shit might float up from the fire pit only for him to ingest it into his body. No thank you. 

He watched all of the faces of the best friends he had and smiled to himself, happy to be back in their presence. Eddie wished that they could be together all the time and that their friendship didn’t feel regulated strictly to summer. He noticed Ben and Bev snuggling across from him and he smiled to himself at the sight. He could still remember how nervous Ben had been when he and Bev had started dating and how he’d flushed whenever someone told him that summer romances never lasted. Ben and Bev had proved to be the expectation to the rule as they had started dating the summer they were sixteen and four years later were still going strong. They were proof that summer romances could last and Eddie was happy for them even if the thought always did pull weirdly at his heart. 

With all the laughter and good cheer around him Eddie felt his muscles begin to relax as some of the tension he had held for the last nine and half months left his body. Here by the campfire Eddie could almost pretend that this summer was going to be just like any other summer. He could almost get himself to forget that Richie was there, and even better he could almost get himself to pretend that things between them were normal. That this summer was going to be just like old times. 

In a lull between conversations Eddie noticed Bill was finally done with his heated debated with Kay over the best _Lord of the Rings_ movie and Eddie quickly moved so that he was sitting on the log beside him, even if being farther from the fire made him shiver. 

“How are you doing?” Eddie whispered, leaning closer to Bill so that hopefully no one would over hear them. Thankfully Bill wasn’t stupid and they knew each other well enough at this point for him to know what Eddie meant without him having to spell it out. 

“I’m okay.” Bill sighed not sounding nearly as okay as he probably wanted Eddie to believe but not sounding nearly as tense as Eddie had feared. 

“What happened between you two anyway?” Eddie couldn’t stop himself from asking, forcing himself to keep his gaze on Bill and not look over his shoulder where Stan was sitting in quiet conversation with Patty. 

“What happened between you and Richie?” Bill shot back immediately, causing Eddie to stare at him in shock. Bill snorted at the look on his face. “You’re not exactly subtle Eddie.” he whispered softly and Eddie really hoped that if anyone could make out the flush in his cheeks they would attribute it to warmth from the fire. 

Eddie looked away from Bill, biting his lip as he tried to think of whether to answer honestly or not. As he did so he caught sight of Richie watching them from across the fire, a pinched expression on his face. Before Eddie could decide to tell Bill the truth Richie was suddenly reaching for the guitar in Mike’s hands who passed it over far too trustingly considering that it was Richie. 

“I have a classic little number I’d like to share with you all.” Richie called out brightly and Eddie decided he must have imagined the look of pain on Richie’s face. “Sing along if you know it.” 

Eddie felt his stomach clench and he had a feeling it wasn’t because of the handful of marshmallows he’d eaten. This fucking song would not leave him alone. Or more accurately, Richie wouldn’t let it. 

As Richie started singing out the first few bars of ‘On top of Spaghetti’ the Losers all began to groan and Eddie started lobbing the marshmallows in his hands across the fire to pelt Richie in the face. He kept singing loudly despite them, plucking random chords on the guitar in a way that made Mike wince and probably whisper silent apologies to his grandfather for the racket coming from the instrument. Eddie couldn’t help but feel a sting of betrayal when he noticed some of the counselors singing along and he glared at Bill but he merely grinned and kept singing. 

“Thank you! I’ll be here all summer.” Richie stood and gave a deep bow as he finished the song and Mike quickly stood to take the guitar from his hands. 

“Do you have to be?” Eddie mumbled, flushing when he realized his words had been loud enough for other people to hear. He ignored the Losers looks of surprise and concern and peered up at Richie, the face he used to know so well unreadable as he placed his hands over his heart and gasped. 

“You wound me Spaghetti!” Richie tutted, clucking his tongue at Eddie like a mother hen. “Straight to the heart.” 

Eddie rolled his eyes at Richie’s dramatics but he felt a tinge of guilt in his stomach. He knew Richie always got loud and exuberant when he was hurt and Eddie still knew him well enough to know what Eddie had just said had stung him deeply. The vindictive petty side of Eddie was glad of it, it was time Richie hurt like Eddie had hurt, but the bigger part of him felt guilty and shitty for hurting someone he used to call a friend, even if said friend had hurt him first. He couldn’t decide if he felt bad enough to actually apologize though but before he could say anything in response one of the new counselors spoke. 

“Why do they call you Spaghetti?” Jerry Bellwood asked innocently and Eddie glared at Richie in a ‘see what you did’ way. 

“ _They_ don’t.” Richie said stubbornly. “ _I_ do. That nickname is reserved for my personal use only.” 

He cast a quick grin at Eddie as if waiting for him to confirm it. Eddie used the moment to shove a large marshmallow into his mouth to stop himself from saying something else shitty and hurting Richie’s feelings even more. Eddie chewed the soft sugary goo angrily as he glared at Richie and hoped Richie still knew him well enough to read his warning in his expression. 

Richie wasn’t allowed to have things reserved for Eddie anymore. He wasn’t allowed to have things for Eddie anymore, period. He had burned that bridge to ashes with his three years of silence. 

Hours later they were all settled in their own cabins although Eddie was certain that no one was sleeping, at the very least no one in his cabin was. They looked up from a very exuberant game of Uno at a soft knock on the door. At their call of ‘come in’ Bev poked her head in and told them it was almost time before slipping back out again. 

Everyone quickly changed out of their pajamas and into their swim trucks, shivering as they wrapped towels around their shoulders. Eddie tugged on a sweatshirt as well, it was cold out and he couldn’t risk getting a chill his first night back at camp. 

“I’m getting too old for this shit.” Arthur laughed to himself as he led the way out into the darkness where the rest of the counselors were huddling. 

Fighting down giggles the group headed across the sloping grounds as quietly as they could. No one had brought a flashlight as they didn’t want to get caught and they had only the light of the moon and the stars to guide them across the camp. There was nearly no light pollution as far as they were from other towns and Eddie could still remember the first time he had seen the night sky at camp. He had no idea there were that many stars in the sky. 

An owl hooted as they ducked behind buildings like they were playing in a spy movie and tried to keep from tripping over each other as Trisha pointed out the light on in the nurse’s cabin at the top of the grounds. Everyone easily shoved down their giggles after that, no one wanted to be caught out after hours by Wilkes, whether they were campers or not. 

By the time they reached the docks the light in the nurse’s cabin had gone off and they all breathed a collective sigh of relief as everyone kicked off shoes and dropped their towels. Eddie shifted from foot to foot as the cold of the wood underneath his feet sunk into his bones. He was pointedly avoiding staring down at the end of the docks and ignoring the fact that Richie had ended up standing beside him. The memory of the last time he had been on the docks with Richie tried to resurface but Eddie hadn’t let himself think about that in a long time so it was surprisingly easy to shove the thought forcefully away. 

“Last one to the island has to help Wilkes set up her station tomorrow.” Kay whisper yelled and everyone gave soft cheers of acknowledgement. Eddie shook out his arms and tried to psyche himself up enough to take off his sweater. 

“You sitting this one out Eds?” Richie joked from beside him causing Eddie to glare over at him and grit his teeth before pulling off his sweater and dropping it onto the dock by his shoes. 

Eddie knew why he was asking, when they were kids Richie tired every year to get Eddie to swim with him out to the little ‘island’ of rocks in the middle of the lake. The distance to it was nearly three times the length of what was sectioned off for campers to swim in and Eddie knew that section was buoyed off for a reason. He had always refused to swim out with Richie, saying it was way too far and one of them would drown. Richie had never been brave enough to go alone and no one else wanted to go unless they all did and as such they had never swum out to the island despite Richie’s best efforts. 

“Fuck you Tozier.” Eddie spat as he moved to stand on the edge of the dock, curling his toes around the edge as he waited for everyone else to be ready to jump. He could still remember vividly how cold the water was at night and he noticed that he was already shivering. Eddie noticed Richie watching him with wide eyes and Eddie clamped down on a thrill of surprise that he could actually shock Richie. 

Richie took off his glasses and placed them carefully on top of Eddie’s sweater causing him to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something nasty. 

“Dr. K you are full of surprises.” Richie said cheerfully, squinting over at Eddie. Eddie felt a flash of panic that Richie wouldn’t be able to see without his glasses well enough to swim before he remembered that it was dark and most of them couldn’t see much anyway. It wasn’t like there was a whole lot to run into in the middle of a lake and even if Richie were to miss the island they could call out to Richie and he could follow their voices. Besides, it wasn’t Eddie’s problem. 

“I never would have thought you’d get the balls to swim out there.” Richie leaned over to whisper in his ear and Eddie’s hands curled into fists at the feeling of his breath warm on his face. 

“Maybe you don’t know who I am anymore, dickwad.” Eddie snapped, listening as Sue began to count down the jump. “Maybe you never did.” 

He saw a flash of hurt cross Richie’s face before Eddie turned from him and jumped into the water with the others. After years of coming up with mean things to say when he saw Richie again Eddie was surprised when the sight of pain on Richie's face didn’t make him feel any better, if anything it made him feel worse. 

The water rushed over him in a freezing wave and Eddie shoved up to the surface as he felt his teeth begin to chatter. Shoving away thoughts of hypothermia Eddie began to swim quickly to get his muscles to warm up before the cold set in. After his teeth stopped pounding in his head Eddie slowed to a more consistent pace that he could keep up until the island. He had no desire to be first, he just wanted to be not last. 

They swam past the buoys that marked the camper swim zone and kept going. Even though this was the third time he had made this swim Eddie still felt a little rush as he swam past them like he was breaking the rules. As the swim continued further Eddie started to pass a few of the others that had started too strong and were now starting to wear out. Eddie shouted encouragement to Stan as he passed him and focused on the form of the rocks growing closer in the distance. He was better at running than swimming but his track season at college had only ended a few weeks ago and he was still in really good shape. 

Finally the island was close enough that Eddie slowed down his swimming so that he didn’t swim into the rocks at a fast pace and scrap up his arms like he did the first time he made this swim. He gratefully reached up to take Bill’s offered hand and let him pull him up onto the rocks beside him. Shivering, Eddie turned back to the water to cheer as everyone else approached, reaching down to help pull Stan and then Beverly from the water. 

A curse a few rocks down caught Eddie’s attention and he turned to see Richie dragging himself up the rocks with help from Mike and Ben. Richie let them help him up enough so that he could flop onto his back on the rocks, panting at he ran his hands over his face and muttered, “Fuck I really need to stop smoking.” 

A few minutes later and all of the counselors had arrived, shivering and wet but surprisingly happy. Lisa Albrecht had pulled the dreaded last spot but she handled it with grace. She had come last the year before so she already knew what she was getting into with Wilkes. 

The group stood together in a shivering mess, wrapping arms around each other and laughing through their chattering teeth as they grouped closer together. Hilda could make them do all the icebreakers she wanted; the icy lake water was really where the counselors formed their bond for the summer. 

Eddie felt Bill drape an arm around his shoulders and he leaned into the warmth even as Bev wrapped her arm around his waist from the other side. Eddie shook off thoughts of the many germs and parasites that lived in lakes as he watched the rest of the Losers form an unbreakable line as they huddled together on the rocks. 

Staring out at the moon reflecting off the black water Eddie felt the last of his worries over college and his mom and all of his life outside of Camp Maturin wash away with the lake water. For the next ten weeks nothing outside of the camp mattered to him, it might as well not even exist. 

“The Losers reunited.” Bill sighed happily; tugging Eddie tighter to him. 

The others all cheered softly in agreement and Eddie tried to mean the cheer that came from his lips but he felt like it fell a little flat. He spotted Richie down at the end of the line by Stan and felt his stomach clench as he realized that this summer his past with Richie was one thing the lake couldn’t wash away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Richie was singing is 'on top of spaghetti' by Tom Glazer and Richie would 100% consider it his and Eddie's song.


	4. Chapter 4

The sound of chirping birds and Mike’s soft snores pulled Eddie from slumber. For a few disorienting seconds he didn’t remember where he was or why the ceiling above him looked like the bottom of another bed before he remembered it was summer. His whole body untensed and Eddie let himself relax into the uncomfortable bed for another minute before untangling himself from his sheets and pulling his shower kit out from where he’d stashed it under the bed. 

While there were bathrooms in each cabin they weren’t equipped with showers and both the boys' and girls' sections of cabins had another building just for showers. Sharing a bathroom was probably the hardest part about summer for Eddie and he only managed to do it that first summer because Bill kept reminding him of how much fun he was having without his mom looking over his shoulder. Getting to run and chase after Richie and Bill all day made even sharing a shower with a host of other boys worth it. 

He had learned over the years that the earlier he got to the showers the cleaner they were and he had long since trained his body to wake up before the wakeup call. It helped that he was still on his spring track schedule and used to his five am practice time. 

Eddie had showered after they got back from the lake but it wasn’t until his morning shower was over that he finally felt like he was warm again. He ran a towel roughly over his hair as he shouldered open the door to the building and stepped out into the early morning light. The sound of birds and the woods waking up around him made him smile and he paused to take a deep breath of the fresh air. 

The smell of acrid cigarette smoke filled his nose instead and Eddie’s eyes popped open as he scanned the area around him. Smoking was expressively forbidden on camp property but Eddie knew that several counselors bent that rule, sometimes Hilda herself did too. Beverly always brought a secret stash of smokes with her and a metal tin can she used as a portable ashtray but Eddie knew the scent of Beverly’s weird clove cigarettes and this was not it. No, this smoke smelled like the cheap cigarettes Richie had pilfered from his dad every summer since they were thirteen. 

Eddie tucked his towel tighter around his shoulders, his wet shower shoes slapping against his feet as he hurried to his cabin. It was far too early in the morning to face Richie, especially with the memory of how stung he’d look at the campfire still fresh in Eddie’s mind and making him feel all kinds of guilty. 

He was starting to wish that Richie was easier to hate. 

Training week passed the same as it had the last two summers. The only difference this year was that all seven of the Losers were finally back together and Eddie spent a fair amount of time trying to avoid being partnered with Richie for anything all while trying to make it look like he wasn’t trying to do that. 

Despite all of his joking and loud abrasive comments Eddie was pleased to see Richie actually paying attention to the classes. He might have been a camper at Camp Maturin for ten summers but that didn’t mean that he knew what to do when he woke up to find a camper crying from homesickness or if two of the kids in his cabin hated each other. 

They often did role play scenarios for those classes and since Eddie was clearly as subtle as Bill said Hilda made sure to partner Eddie and Richie up as often as possible. Lisa complimented his acting skills after one where he and Richie were told to act out a scene where they deeply disliked each other and Eddie had to bite his tongue to keep from telling her he hadn’t been acting. 

As the week wore on Eddie helped Beverly set up her arts and craft cabin, neatly arranging tubs of markers and sorting plastic beads into little trays. Eddie always found setting this cabin up to be the worst job of training week since he knew firsthand how quickly all their hard work would be erased once the campers arrived. 

He’d intended to help Stan set up the science center cabin but he’d heard the sound of Richie cackling floating out through the open windows so Eddie had scurried off to help Mike tend to all of the various sports equipment that needed some care instead. 

Eddie had tried hard to keep his animosity for Richie hidden, to shove down his annoyance whenever the other man opened his mouth but Bill was right and he wasn’t subtle. Everyone seemed to pick up on his eyerolls and snarky comments and Richie was more than happy to egg him on and tease him right back. It felt a lot like it had during their camper years only now when Eddie told him to shut up, he actually meant it. 

“I don’t understand why you and Richie are always fighting.” Ben sighed sadly one evening when it was just him and Eddie in their cabin. He looked across the floor at Eddie was anxious eyes, “You two used to be so close.” 

Eddie shrugged as he looked away from Ben’s sweet face to tighten the laces of his shoes. “People change I guess.” 

Near the end of the week the counselors found themselves at the high ropes course, thick helmets on and harnesses tight around their waists. This was always Eddie least favorite part of the week and it had often been the thing he dreaded all summer. Hilda was adamant that counselors shouldn’t ask campers to do anything that they wouldn’t do themselves but Eddie silently thought it was ridiculous that he was being subjected to this course because he usually ended up with the youngest group of kids and so far none of them were tall enough to do the course. 

“Any day now Eds!” Richie called cheerfully from the obstacle behind him. Eddie gritted his teeth and clutched the ropes connecting his harness to the course as he carefully made his way across the sky bridge. Calling it a bridge was a bit of a stretch considering that it was composed of pieces of boards set nearly a foot apart and it was thirty feet up in the air. 

“Shut up Richie!” Eddie yelled back trying to focus on the next board while also trying desperately not to look down. Whenever he looked down his vision swum and he felt lightheaded like he was about to pass out. Passing out on the course would not be good, his rope could snap and he could easily plummet to his death, although Eddie supposed that good happen even if he didn’t pass out. 

Richie’s voice from behind him snapped him out of his morbid thoughts and with his obnoxious comments to distract him from the height Eddie managed to make it across the bridge and through the final two parts of the obstacle course. Watching the ground rush up to meet him as he ziplined to the bottom Eddie felt a surge of relief to be back on the ground and he promised himself that next year he wouldn’t get stuck on the bridge. 

Of course, he’d made that promise for ten years running now but surely one of these times it would stick. 

_Ten years old was simply too young to die but Eddie was pretty certain that he was about to, regardless of his age. His mother would be beside herself, he hoped that the camp had really good insurance because she was going to sue every single person that worked here and probably half the parents of the campers for good measure. He felt a sudden pang of worry that he had never created a will but he supposed that he didn’t really have anything of value except for a few X-men comics and he left all those at Bill’s anyways so he would just keep them. If by some stroke of luck, he managed to survive this he really needed to remember to get his affairs in order._

_“It’s just a bridge Spaghetti!” Richie called out from behind him, his voice somehow managing to penetrate the snarling terror in Eddie’s mind. “Kick its ass!”_

_“Bridges don’t have asses!” Eddie shrieked back, his voice high and squeaky as he clung to his harness and tried to get his feet to move, forward or backwards. He was currently in the middle of the air bridge and far down below him he could see a cluster of counselors and campers peering up at him in worry._

_He’d been on the bridge for at least ten minutes now, terror gluing him in place. He couldn’t seem to get any part of his body to move except to shake. The fact that he’d actually managed to respond to something Richie had yelled was a miracle itself considering he’d been shouting things for as long as Eddie had been stuck._

_“This bridge does!” Richie insisted and Eddie squeezed his eyes shut after catching sight of Bill and Stan looking up at him. They were so small down there it looked like Eddie could reach over and squish them with a finger._

_“Make this fucking bridge your bitch Eds!” Richie shouted, his voice cracking as he was likely shouting himself hoarse. Eddie felt a flash of worry at this, he didn’t want Richie to lose his voice because Eddie was scared of heights. Although Richie without a voice would mean the cabin was awfully quieter._

_Shaking the thought from his head Eddie opened his eyes again and stared at the platform at the end of the bridge. It was only two planks away. Two planks that were spaced so far apart that only the toes of Eddie’s shoes could be touching two at once. But he had already made it out two planks so even if he wanted to go back, he was covering the same amount of distance that it would take him to go forward._

_“You’re braver than you think!” Richie called out; his voice softer than his other shouts had been like this time his words were really only meant to be heard by Eddie. They were the only two left on the course so Eddie supposed they probably were._

_“Braver than I think.” Eddie whispered under his breath before somehow managing to lift his foot off the board. He felt himself waver in the slight breeze and before he could let himself think it through any longer Eddie practically flew across the final two boards to reach the next platform._

_He wrapped his arms around the thick wood and shoved his face against it, not even caring if he got a splinter, he was so happy to be able to touch something solid. He could hear cheering from below him and heard the bridge rattling and suddenly Richie was next to him, screaming in his ear and wrapping his arms around him too._

The day before the campers arrived was bright with cloudless blue skies as Hilda called out the cabin assignments after lunch. Eddie listened with only half an ear to the girls’ list but he tuned in quickly when his name was said first for the boys. 

“Tamarack, Eddie.” All ten of the cabins had been the same for as long as Eddie could remember and this year was no exception. This meant that once again Eddie was watching over the youngest group, the eight and nine year olds. 

He listened as Richie was given Spruce, the ten and elevens, in the cabin that Eddie had spent the last week in. Ben got the fourteen and fifteen year olds in Cedar and Bill with the oldest one of sixteen and seventeen in Maple. 

“Georgie’s in your cabin.” Bill told Ben with a smile as Hilda finished her announcement and everyone began to make their way up to the cabins to move their things. 

“Great!” Ben said happily as he swung his and Beverly’s clasped hands much to her amusement. “I love Georgie!” 

“So Eds do they always put you with the babies because you’re all the same height or is it because your mothering instinct is just so strong?” Richie popped up suddenly by Eddie’s side and Eddie turned to him with a glower. 

"Eddie is great with kids.” Bill interrupted before Richie could go off on what was sure to be yet another tangent about Eddie’s mom. 

“Is he? I distinctly remember him yelling at an eight-year-old.” Stan deadpanned from behind Eddie. Eddie turned to look at him with betrayal. 

“That was one time! And I was a kid too!” Eddie protested even as everyone else laughed. Eddie huffed and shook his head at them as they approached the cabins, sometimes he wasn’t sure why he kept all of them around. 

Eddie had tried to hurry his packing but he didn’t like to just shove things in his bag like everyone else did, choosing instead to fold everything neatly before repacking it into his suitcase. Because of this he was alone in Spruce when Richie shoved open the door, a bulging barely zipped duffle bag in his arms. 

Swallowing down his unease Eddie quickly finished folding his shirt as Richie tossed his bag onto the top bunk closest to the door. 

“Being counselor has its perks, first choice of beds!” Richie sighed in happiness and he pulled his long frame up onto the bunk next to his bag. Eddie made a noise of agreement as he finished zipping his suitcase and got to his feet. “Hey Eds?” 

Eddie took a deep breath to steel himself as he looked up at Richie. It was not lost on him that this was the first time that the two of them had been alone in three years. Trying hard not to think of what happened last time they were alone Eddie forced himself to meet Richie’s eyes. “What?” 

Richie paused for a moment and that second long pause caused Eddie to raise his eyebrows in concern. A pause meant Richie was thinking over what he was about to say and that pretty much never happened. Richie cleared his throat before speaking in a rush, “I know you hate me now and everything bu-” 

“I don’t hate you.” Eddie interrupted him in surprise, even more surprised to find that once he said the words aloud, he realized that they were true. He was pissed at Richie sure, pissed and hurt and mainly just pissed, but he didn’t actually _hate_ him. 

“Could have fooled me.” Richie laughed but the sound felt off and Eddie knew it was forced. He frowned up at him and watched Richie toy with the straps of his duffle bag as he whispered. “I’m sorry you know, for everything.” 

Eddie felt a knot begin to form in his stomach as he wondered what Richie’s version of everything was. If all the things he was sorry for were even the things Eddie was mad about. 

“Do you think we could at least pretend to be friends again?” Richie asked, turning his gaze to focus on his hands. “Not for me but for the little campers? It won’t do them any good to have to watch mom and dad fight here too.” 

Eddie sighed as he considered what to say. He hadn’t been counting on Richie just showing up in his life again let alone acting like everything between them was so easily repairable. He hadn’t expected to be asked to act like they were great and normal again but Richie did have a point. The campers didn’t need to watch them bicker and argue all day while they were trying to have fun. Besides, Eddie knew that their friends were getting worried too. For their sakes Eddie could pretend like things between him and Richie weren’t weird and messy and hurtful. He doubted that he could ever think of Richie as a member of the Loser’s Club again but he could at least act like he didn’t want to shove Richie over every time he spoke. 

“I guess I can manage that.” Eddie coincided, not bothering to mask the dejection in his tone. Richie looked up at him, surprise evident in his eyes that his glasses always magnified to look twice as large. 

“Really?” Richie asked, shock lacing his voice. 

Eddie huffed in indignation as he rolled his suitcase out of the cabin, calling over his shoulder as he went. “The word you were looking for was thanks.” 

Camper arrival day was always inevitably a mess. Kids always cried, someone was always shouting about forgotten items, parents were pulling aside staff to give instructions on their kid's behaviors or to ask for directions. At least one kid always pleaded for their parents not leave them there. Eddie had found that more often than not that ended up being the kid that didn’t want to leave once summer was over. 

Eddie spent the morning and afternoon soothing parent’s nerves and welcoming the campers, most of whom were familiar faces. It was easy enough for him to find the seven campers he would be looking after this summer; he’d had Danny and Adam in his cabin last year. The other five were easy to spot considering they were the youngest and smallest of the bunch. At the sight of them all Eddie tried to brush off the after sting of Richie’s joke about his height being why he always got this cabin. 

Thankfully only one of his campers, a slight boy named Regie Cotter, cried. His parents seemed entirely freaked out by this and unsure if they should leave him or not despite Eddie’s reassurances that it was normal and he would be fine. The Denbroughs familiar car pulled into the lot then and Eddie quickly drew them over to the Cotters and the assurances of other parents about how great the camp was seemed to finally ease the Cotters nerves about leaving their son, even if Regie was still sniffing when they left. 

Eddie quickly hugged the Denbroughs and ruffled Georgie’s hair (despite his cries of protest) before leading Regie to Tamarack where he’d already taken the other boys to get settled. 

As they walked across the ground, Regie’s bag slung over Eddie’s shoulders, they passed Richie leading his campers in a frog like march that had all seven of the boys in hysterics. Eddie narrowed his eyes at Richie’s bright sunglasses and floppy pink sunhat that he’d added to ‘liven up’ their uniform of shorts and staff camp shirts. Eddie was pretty sure the neon green shorts had livened up his outfit enough but at least Richie was easy to spot. 

Once in the cabin Eddie introduced Regie to the group as he still seemed a little shaken up. The other boys introduced themselves amid their flurry of unpacking that could be better described as ‘throwing everything in their bags out onto their bunks’. 

There was Danny Torrance whose intense gaze Eddie had found a bit unnerving last summer but he had grown accustomed to it now. Hopefully the boy wouldn’t have nightmares this year but Eddie and him had figured out a pretty good system of contraband snacks to help ward them off. 

Adam Terrault was Eddie’s other returning camper still young enough to be in Tamarack. He was currently unpacking t-shirts in colors so bright they made Richie’s wardrobe look dull. 

It was Dorsey Corcoran’s first summer at the camp but he made sure to tell Eddie that his brother, also named Eddie, had been going there for five years and told him all the camp secrets. Considering that the only camp secret Eddie had was only known by two people he wasn’t very worried that the other Eddie had passed it on. 

Matthew Clements was taping photographs of a black lab on the wall by his bunk and quick to regal everyone about stories of Payaso. 

Steven Johnson was a quiet boy and was the only one of the group neatly unpacking his bag. Eddie found himself relieved that was the kid whose bunk was closest to his. Last year the kid closest to his bunk kept sneaking in food from the mess hall and they’d had a terrible ant problem. 

The smallest of their number, John Feury, rounded out the group. He was a curious child and spent the entire time they were unpacking pinging questions at Eddie. At first, they had been about Eddie’s life but John grew bored with that quickly and went on to fire off questions about the camp which Eddie was glad for. Those were much easier to answer. 

Thirty minutes later and the boys were as settled as they were going to be in the cabin so Eddie took them out for a tour of the camp. He made sure to warn them not to go into the lake without a buddy and never when there wasn’t a guard on duty. Dorsey told him that his brother had said that campers snuck out to the lake all the time and Eddie quickly shot that rumor down while making a mental note to find out what cabin the older Corcoran brother was in and warning the counselor to be extra watchful at night. 

As they made their way past the arts and crafts building Eddie noticed a flash of red inside and ducked in to find Bev setting up the tables for tomorrow’s activity, making friendship bracelets it looked like. Eddie thought it was a little early in camp for that but he didn’t say anything, nodding his campers inside instead. 

“Guys this is Beverly. She’s in charge of arts and crafts.” Eddie said as Beverly stood up and gave his campers a little wave. 

“Eddie said you were pretty.” Dorsey pipped in helpfully causing Beverly to look at Eddie with an amused look while he spluttered. 

“His brother Eddie not me Eddie.” he explained quickly. He was beginning to see that this might get confusing. 

“You don’t think I’m pretty Eddie?” Beverly asked, her eyes wide in fake hurt. Eddie’s campers began to titter around him and Eddie sighed and glared lightly at her. 

“You’re gorgeous Marsh.” he drawled making the campers laugh and then groan in disgust as she leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek. 

After Beverly gave the campers a tour of the room Eddie led them out the building making sure they had all gone outside before he turned to look at Bev in exasperation. She grinned at him wickedly in response. 

“You’re the worst Bev.” Eddie sighed. Now he was going to have to listen to his campers ask him if he and Beverly were dating all night. 

“Don’t tell Richie that. He’ll be upset someone’s coming after his title.” Beverly called after him as he headed out after his cabin. Eddie made sure none of the boys were looking before flipping her off much to her delighted laughter. 

_“This is for you.” Beverly said happily as she dropped a piece of string in Eddie’s lap where he lay stretched out under a tree with Stan. She dropped another string on Stan’s stomach as Eddie picked up the one on his and held it closer to his face. Upon closer inspection it wasn’t a piece of string at all but an intricately woven string bracelet of overlapping strands of pink and red._

_“Thanks Bev!” Eddie cried happily as he sat up and pulled the friendship bracelet over his wrist. It was even in his favorite colors. Eddie was pretty sure this was the best gift he’d ever received in his eleven years of existence. He noticed that Stan’s bracelet was only one color and his smile widened at the fact that Beverly knew them so well after only a few weeks._

_“She give you bracelets too?” Richie suddenly cried out as he and Bill approached their small group, towels around their shoulders and water dripping off them. “Red you hussy you told me I was special.”_

_“You are.” Stan deadpanned causing Eddie to crack up and Bill to guffaw as he dropped himself onto the ground on Stan’s other side._

_“Do you like them?” Beverly asked, surprisingly shy for once._

_“I love it!” Eddie insisted, running his fingers over the soft thread. “I’ll never take it off.” he promised even though he knew that the string would surely start to house germs after a while. Maybe he would take it off to wash it once in a while but he would always put it back on so that didn’t count right?_

_“It's the most beautiful thing I ever saw!” Richie called in a soft southern accent like those old-time movies Mrs. Denbrough was so fond of. He went to stand over Eddie’s shoulder, grabbing his wrist to look at his bracelet._

_“Ew Richie you’re getting water all over me.” Eddie complained, brushing droplets off his arm._

_“My deepest apologies Mr. Kaspbrak.” Richie said, straightening up with his hands over his heart. Before Eddie could do anything, Richie dropped his towel off his neck and shook his body like a dog causing water droplets to fly and splash all over them._

_Eddie cursed Richie out as he dropped unceremoniously onto the ground beside him, brushing water off his face as Beverly shrieked with laughter. Stan and Bill joined in and before too long Eddie found himself laughing as well._

_There beneath the big tree he felt safe, he felt happy, even with Richie's lake water all over him. Eddie wished not for the first time that he could see all of his friends outside of camp too. He wished that it could be like this all the time._

The mess hall felt a lot smaller with all the campers talking and laughing in it. After everyone had eaten Hilda stood on a chair in the front of the room and called their attention with a single clap. Eddie had to give it to the woman, she knew how to run a room. 

He let himself tune out on the rules again, it wasn’t much different from the counselors‘ rules and he was sure he could recite this speech by heart. _No going outside after hours, no smoking, no swimming when the instructors aren’t on duty_. And so forth. 

Eddie knew all the rules by heart and even if he didn’t, he didn’t think any of his eight and nine year old kids were going to be up for trying to break even half of the rules on the list. And if they were, Eddie had a feeling any one of them would be quick to catch in the act, no matter how much ‘advice’ Dorsey’s brother had given him. 

After the boring (but totally necessary Eddie knew) camp rules he felt himself perk up as Hilda called Mike up to explain the rules for capture the flag. Eddie found himself cheering along with the rest of the Losers as he helped Hilda down from the chair (“What a gentleman!” Richie yelled) and took her place. 

“Hi everyone I’m Mike.” Mike gave a little wave as half of the camp dutifully called out, “Hi Mike.” in return. “Show of hands from our first-time campers how many of you have played capture the flag before?” 

A handful of people raised their hands, John being the only one of Eddie’s campers to do so. Danny grinned at him and leaned over to whisper something in his ear, blushing when he caught Eddie’s pointed look to pay attention. 

“Well here at Camp Maturin we play a little bit differently.” Mike explained before holding up a dark green flag with the word written on it in white font. “Each cabin will receive one of these flags. You’re to hide it somewhere on the _outside_ of your cabin. No part of the flag has to be visible.” Mike rolled the cloth of the flag around the wooden stick to demonstrate. 

“The goal is for one cabin to find and collect all of the other cabins’ flags. Once you get a flag from another cabin you are to hide it somewhere on the outside of your cabin. And no, digging holes in the ground outside your cabin does not count.” Mike added with a pointed look at Richie who made a ‘who me’ gesture and was met with laughter. 

“Once your flag is taken you cannot take any other flags until you get it back. The team with the most flags, and still in possession of their own, on the last day of camp wins.” Mike explained. “Any questions?” 

Mike answered a few questions from campers and Eddie tuned them out as he listened to Richie boasting to his cabin, “I used to rule this game!” 

“Bullshit. You look like a string bean. There’s no way you're good at games.” Eddie turned over his shoulder to look in surprise at the sulking kid glaring at Richie and poking at the food left on his plate. Eddie was about to butt in and tell the kid he shouldn’t talk to people like that before he realized the hypocrisy of that statement and Richie spoke first. 

“Ah or does my lean mean fighting physique make me perfect for games? People always underestimate me little one.” Richie explained with far more patience than Eddie had ever heard come from him. The boy said nothing in response but Eddie could practically hear him rolling his eyes. Eddie felt a flash of pity for everyone in cabin Spruce if this was any indication of how their summer was going to go. 

Richie caught sight of Eddie watching him then and he winked at him, causing Eddie to blush and snap back forward to face his campers. 

“Did you ever win Eddie?” Steven asked quietly, looking up at him with wide dark eyes. 

“A few times.” Eddie admitted with a shrug. “But it’s a lot of fun just to play.” He added quickly not wanting his campers to think that they had to play the game just to win. Half the fun was strategizing when to find time to hunt around the cabins and not get caught. 

_“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Eddie hissed as he pulled his hood tighter around his face, rain rolling off of him like waves. “We’re totally going to get sick and then we’ll get a fever and maybe it’ll be so high that we’ll go into a coma. A coma Richie! And then we’ll die or worse we won’t and we’ll just be stuck there in that coma growing old and not even knowing it forever!”_

_“Forever huh?” Richie asked as Eddie paused for breath and Richie kneeled down to peer under the front steps leading up to Sycamore. “Sounds like you found the secret to eternal life Eds!”_

_“Don’t call me that!” Eddie snapped, watching as Richie reached under the porch like there weren’t likely spiders and snakes and who knew what down there. Eddie wished not for the first time that he was half as brave as his friend. “You’re going to get bit by something and they won’t have the antidote and the hospital is too far away and-”_

_“Eureka!” Richie cried in excitement as he pulled his hand out from under the porch, flag clutched tightly in his fist._

_Even in the driving rain Eddie could make out the exuberant grin on his face and Eddie bounced on his toes as he pulled Richie to his feet, careful to take the hand not currently covered in cobwebs and who knew what else._

_In the past four summers they had been at camp they had never managed to find more than one other cabin’s flag but now with Sycamore’s and Oak’s that Stan had found last week they had found a whole two flags. It might not have seemed like much but it was enough to make Eddie and Richie jump around each other happily in the rain. They quickly rushed to their cabin to stash the flag and as they hunted for the perfect hiding spot Eddie found that he no longer cared anymore that he was soaked to the bone._

After an afternoon of the games Eddie had played with the staff a week ago, they had another campfire that night, even larger than the one the counselors had. Eddie watched him campers make s’mores and he even let Regie make him one too although Eddie still didn’t have the marshmallow toasted much to the delighted amusement of his campers. They all decided they had to try ‘raw s’mores’ as Matthew dubbed them after that. The consensus of which type of s’more was better was tied so Eddie called Bill over to be a tie breaker only for him to betray him and say toasted s’mores were better. 

Eddie pretended to pout until Bill shoved a marshmallow in his mouth making his kids shriek with laughter. Mike brought out his guitar again and led the group on a few sing alongs, Eddie even joined in although he wasn’t a fan of his singing voice. 

“Let me play a tune Mikey!” Richie reached for the guitar after a while but thankfully Mike only batted his hands away lightly with a shake of his head. Eddie felt a surge of gratitude at that because he was certain that Richie had been about to sing that damn spaghetti song again and he would like to go at least one day this summer without having to hear it.


	5. Chapter 5

The afternoon of the first full day of camp was devoted to all of the campers passing a swimming test. They had to pass it to be allowed to swim in the lake without a life vest. Thankfully all of Eddie’s cabin passed the test, last summer one of his kids was a terrible swimmer but he hated wearing the life vests. Eddie had to chase him around the lake with one more than once. 

After the test was over Eddie led his campers over to one of the edges of the lake where other campers were swinging out into the lake on a rope swing. He noticed a few of the younger boys blanch at the sight and he quickly spoke to help ease their fears. 

“No one has to use the swing if they don’t want too.” Eddie assured them. He wanted to tell them it was perfectly safe but he also didn’t want to lie to them and the fact was that the rope could fray or break at any time. Still, no camper had been hurt on it yet so Eddie figured it was as ‘perfectly’ safe as a rope swing was going to get. 

“Yes, they do.” Dorsey interjected, turning to stand in front of Eddie and look at his bunkmates with his hands on his hips. “My brother told me its tradition to use the swing to go into the lake the first time. If you don’t do it your whole summer while be cursed.” 

Eddie closed his eyes for a moment as he swallowed a sigh. While that was a camp tradition Eddie had really hoped Dorsey’s brother had left out the supposed curse part of it. 

“But we’ve already been in the lake!” Regie squeaked, gesturing at the water dripping from all of them. 

“The swim test doesn’t count.” Dorsey said exasperatedly. 

After several minutes of the kids psyching each other up and waiting for the cabin ahead of them to finish Eddie watched nervously as his kids swung out into the lake. Danny went first, followed by Matthew who let out a surprisingly impressive yell as he did. One by one the others went until it was only Regie and Eddie left. 

“Do I have to?” Regie whispered, looking up at Eddie with wide eyes. 

Eddie felt his heart clench at the sight. He could already feel a soft spot forming for the nervous kid, so like how he himself had been as a child. 

“Of course not.” Eddie promised. 

“What about the curse?” Regie whispered, his voice so soft Eddie almost didn’t hear him. 

Eddie opened his mouth to tell him that there was no curse when footsteps suddenly approached them and Eddie looked up, his face pinching in annoyance as he caught sight of Richie looking between him and Regie with a grin. 

“Quite a line forming up!” Richie said brightly to Eddie before turning to kneel and look Regie in the eye. “Be honest, you trying to get Eds here brave enough to swing?” 

Eddie huffed in annoyance before he realized that Richie was trying to make Regie not feel embarrassed for being so scared. The thought made Eddie pause and look down at Richie curiously. He’d let all his own grievances with him blind him to the fact that at his core, Richie had a good heart. Eddie felt himself flush and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was embarrassed by how petty he’d acted for the last week or because Richie was kneeling in front of him without a shirt. 

Pinching the edge of his leg to make himself focus Eddie tuned in as Regie shook his head and looked down at the ground, running his bare feet through the mud forming beneath him. 

“I keep telling him the rope is only scary until you jump, after that its great!” Richie continued, undeterred by the fact that Regie wasn’t looking at him. Eddie looked between them curiously, not used to seeing Richie interact with any children other than Georgie. 

“Why is it great?” Regie asked slowly, almost in spite of himself. 

“Because once your feet lift off the ground it feels like you’re flying!” Richie grinned, leaning back on his heels. “Haven’t you ever wanted to fly before?” 

Regie looked up at him slowly before nodding and turning back to face Eddie. 

“Will you do it too?” he asked softly. 

“I’ll be right after you.” Eddie promised before offering him the rope he still held in his hand. 

Regie looked at it with fear evident on his face before turning to look at his bunkmate’s splashing in the water. He turned towards Richie suddenly and Richie nearly fell backwards in surprise as he asked skeptically. “It really feels like flying?” 

“Promise.” Richie assured him, reaching out his pinkie finger for Regie to take. Regie shook his pinkie with his own solemnly before taking the rope from Eddie and taking a deep breath. With a shriek he pushed off the ground and swung out over the water letting go at the highest point. Eddie cheered as he reached out to catch the rope as it swung back and Richie hollered beside him. 

“Thanks.” Eddie said slowly, turning to look at Richie curiously before he jumped. He had spent the last week wondering why on earth Hilda would trust Richie to be in charge of children but after that interaction Eddie felt like she had actually made the right choice. 

“No problem Eds.” Richie grinned before pointing to the rope in Eddie’s hands. “Andale Eduardo! You got people waiting here!” 

Eddie scratched the side of his noise with his middle finger causing Richie to laugh uproariously as Eddie swung out over the water. 

_“I hate this.” Eddie complained as he took the rope from Bill’s hands and readied himself to swing out into the water._

_“Tradition is tradition good sir!” Richie reminded him in his latest Voice, a nasally accent he claimed sounded British but Eddie wasn’t convinced._

_“I thought it was only tradition at the start of summer?” the newest member of their friend group, Ben, asked shyly._

_“It is for the rest of the camp.” Beverly agreed with him before pointing at the six of them standing in a half circle. “But its tradition for us to do it on the last day too.”_

_“There’s just no curse if we don’t.” Stan assured him._

_“Do I have to go first?” Eddie whined, looking over his shoulder at the others who all nodded. Even at thirteen he still hated the rope swing. He just did not trust any rope that hung outdoors at the mercy of nature’s elements to hold him up._

_“Do you need a kiss for bravery Eds?” Richie asked with a cheeky grin, puckering his lips and advancing on Eddie._

_Eddie squealed in disgust before running and swinging into the lake._

Getting his campers adjusted to camp life always took the better part of the first week and this year proved to be no exception. Eddie was pleased that the kids’ personalities all seemed to get on well and so far, there had only been two small fights, neither of which had resulted in violence. 

His kids seemed to be enjoying the activities, so far most of their favorite was the lake although Adam really liked any of the sports Mike had them play and John thought Stan’s science cabin was the coolest place on the planet. 

“He would trade me for you.” Eddie laughed at breakfast one morning as he regaled Stan with John’s latest comment about how awesome Stan was. 

“A wise choice.” Stan responded causing Eddie to chuck a piece of toast at him. 

The second week of camp rolled around and to Eddie’s surprise their flag was still safely hidden where the boys had wedged it between the top of the doorframe. The boys had spent hours sneaking around the other cabins trying to find other teams’ flags but they had quickly grown discouraged when they didn’t find anything and hadn't talked much about the game in days. Eddie knew that he should be encouraging them to keep playing and strategizing but there was so much time left in the summer that he figured he could encourage them later. 

Several of the campers were sporting bright red sunburns but no one in Eddie’s cabin was burnt as he made them all apply sunscreen like clockwork every fifty minutes. He’d gotten in the habit years ago for himself and after one summer when Richie burned his shoulders so badly they blistered Eddie had made everyone else in the group put on sunscreen too. Beverly like to joke that she was glad she had the arts and craft cabin now because without Eddie with her to remind her to put on sunscreen she would look more like a lobster than a person by the time summer was over. 

Now that camp was underway and the cabins all had schedules that they stuck too Eddie found it much easier to avoid Richie, although after watching his interaction with Regie at the rope swing Eddie wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to avoid Richie anymore. He hadn’t thought it was possible but his feelings for the man were even more mixed up than before. 

A downside to the schedule was that he only saw his friends in small scattered bursts at a time but they had learned over the years to make the moments count. Eddie had yet to manage to get Bill to spill on why he couldn’t look at Stan without a funny look on his face nor could he get Stan to tell him why he once scoffed at something Bill said seriously (the Stanly equivalent of cursing someone out). Eddie didn’t like feeling out of the loop but all the others had to do was press him about why him and Richie weren’t close anymore when they used to spend their summers inseparable and Eddie would clam up and suddenly remember he had somewhere very important to be. After a few of these encounters Eddie simply stopped bringing it up. If they wanted him to know they’d tell him. Well hopefully. 

His campers were pretty great this year and as the second week started to wind to a close Eddie got Mike to bring them back some contraband Oreos after he used his afternoon off to go into the small town at the base of the mountain. The boys were sworn to secrecy and spent the night filled with cookie crumbs and giggling. Two days later as they were leaving the arts and craft tent Eddie was presented with six different friendship bracelets (“Mine fell apart.” Steven told him regretfully). Eddie made sure to put them all on at once, ruffling each boys’ hair in thanks as they sped past him to the mess hall. 

“Looking stylish as ever Eddie.” Bev said with a grin, looking at his wrist as they walked to the mess hall together. 

“Don’t be jealous Bev. Green doesn’t look good on you.” Eddie joked, sticking his tongue out at her. 

"Oh, Eddie you silly thing.” Beverly sighed as she threw her arm around his shoulder, “Everything looks good on me.” 

Eddie laughed as he followed her into the mess hall, joking and laughing with her as they made their way down the line to get food. Eddie tried not to grimace at the sight of the meal on his tray and instead bid goodbye to Bev as she went off to join Ben and Eddie went to sit among his campers. 

A few minutes later there was an uproar by the doors as Richie’s cabin came in, jumping and piling on each other like a litter of puppies. Eddie rolled his eyes at their antics and tuned back into to listen to Adam’s very excited description of his favorite TV show. 

“Nice bracelets Spaghetti!” Eddie looked up to find Richie standing next to his table, balancing his tray on one hand as he reached out to touch the new bracelets on Eddie’s wrist. Richie ran one of the string bracelets between his fingers while Eddie’s campers all shouted over one another to tell him which one they had made. Eddie found himself unable to speak as Richie’s fingers had slipped under the bracelets to graze against the bare skin of his wrist. 

Eddie couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed by his body that even after what had happened last time the sensation of Richie touching him still made him shiver. 

Eddie couldn’t even remember what Fourth of July was like outside of Camp Maturin. Here he knew it meant a long day of swimming and craft projects and ended with sparklers and fireworks and letting the campers stay up way later than they probably should have. 

Making his way among the campers scattered around on blankets on the ground Eddie was careful not to spill the bucket of water he was holding on any of them. He barely managed to dodge around two girls racing each other with sparklers and he yelled after them not to run with the sparklers in hand. 

“Easy way to put an eye out.” Eddie grumbled, shaking his head to himself as he neared the open patch of grass where the other buckets of water lay to put the fireworks and sparklers out in. 

The sound of voices drew his attention and Eddie looked around curiously, following the noise to make sure that campers hadn’t used this opportunity to sneak away from the group and do something they weren’t supposed to. Eddie knew for a fact that they did but now that he was an adult, he had to at least try to stop it. 

When he came through the trees Eddie was surprised to find not campers but Bill and Stan in the middle of a clearly heated argument. 

“Just admit you did it on purpose!” Stan snapped causing Bill to throw his hands up in the air. Eddie looked between the two of them in shock, his eyes kept flicking back to Stan’s face. It was more than a little jarring to see usually stoic Stan looking so upset. 

“I t-t-told you it w-was an accident!” Bill cried out as Stan scoffed and looked away in annoyance, his gaze landing on Eddie who looked between the two of them awkwardly. 

“You guys okay?” Eddie asked nervously, feeling bad for walking in on them and feeling even worse that he got caught spying, even if it had been accidental. 

“Peachy.” Stan huffed before walking stiffly past Eddie to disappear among the running campers. Eddie turned to look at Bill who had slumped against a tree in defeat. 

“Erm, wanna talk about it?” Eddie asked unsure, Bill hadn’t exactly seemed keen to talk about Stan for a while but Eddie would have felt like a dick if he didn’t at least offer. 

Bill shook his head forlornly, muttering down to his feet. “He’s gonna hate me forever.” Bill looked up then as if he’d just remembered Eddie was there. “We should get back.” 

Eddie agreed noiselessly and they walked in silence side by side back to where the campers were starting to settle down to lay back and watch the fireworks. Eddie noticed Richie watching him and Bill with a pained look on his face, clearly he didn’t know Eddie had been looking at him. Eddie remembered the look on Bill’s face when he said Stan hated him and Eddie felt a clench in his gut that he had probably been the cause of a similar expression on Richie. 

“Found it!” Adam cried happily before backing out of the bunk half of his body was underneath. Eddie sighed in relief and stopped digging through the shoes scattered near the door. Adam smiled at Eddie cheerfully and showed him the lanyard clasped proudly in his hand, either not noticing or not caring that there was now dirt smeared down his front. 

“Great. Let’s go catch up with the others.” Eddie motioned for him to brush off his clothes even though he really wanted to make the boy go change now that there were undoubtedly germs all over him. But Eddie knew from experience how long it took Adam to pick out an outfit and they were already late enough as it was. 

“Do you think Mike will play on my team?” Adam asked hopefully as he slid the lanyard around his neck and followed Eddie to the door. 

“Maybe.” Eddie shrugged about to add that Mike couldn’t always partner with everyone during the tennis games and since they were late Adam would probably be last in line. Before he could begin his explanation though he’d swung open the door and nearly jumped backwards into Adam to find a pair of sheepish looking boys standing directly in front of them. 

They’d already been at camp for over three weeks and Eddie had a pretty good memory for names and faces anyway so it only took him a moment to place the two campers. Scooter Morgan and Davey Popham, both in cabin Spruce, Richie's cabin. 

Eddie narrowed his eyes at them as Davey dropped his hands sheepishly from where he had been running his fingers along the doorframe, Scooter was already backing down the stairs. 

“You didn’t see anything.” he drawled slowly, waving his hands in a manner that Eddie had seen Richie attempt numerous times over the years. Davey quickly dashed down the steps towards him and they both sprinted off before Eddie could come up with a message that was both snarky yet still camper appropriate for them to take back to Richie. 

“They were looking for the flag!” Adam hissed, tugging on Eddie’s arm. “We gotta check it's still there!” 

“That’s what they want us to do.” Eddie assured him and sure enough he could see the tip of Scooter’s baseball cap poking out from behind the shower building, no doubt waiting around to see where they were going to check so that they could come back and steal Tamarack’s flag right from under their noses. 

“How do you know?” Adam asked curiously as Eddie led him outside, not even letting his eyes flicker to where their flag was really hidden. 

“Because I know Richie.” Eddie sighed, before making a big show of looking around for spectators and then running his fingers under the windowsill and giving Adam a big thumbs up. 

Adam returned the gesture with a confused look but when he opened his mouth to question him Eddie winked at him and Adam’s face quickly turned to recognition. He gave Eddie an adorably terrible wink in return and they sped off towards the tennis courts to catch up with their cabin. 

Halfway there they looked back and sure enough Scooter and Davey were standing at Tamarack’s window looking for a flag that wasn’t there. 

“Woah. You played them.” Adam whispered reverently before looking up at Eddie in awe. Eddie shifted uneasily at the look, he was used to his campers listening to him and respecting him but the kind of look Adam was giving him was usually reserved for people like Bill not Eddie. 

“We need to have a meeting tonight.” Eddie said to change the subject. None of Tamarack had really been very interested in playing capture the flag, it was a long game and none of the young cabins rarely had the patience to play it out. The thought of Richie’s campers looking for their flag had Eddie clenching his teeth. He wasn’t sure if it was due to annoyance or something else but now wasn’t the time to figure it out. Eddie had more pressing things to worry about. 

“What for?” Adam asked curiously as he waved at a passing camper. 

“It's time to come up with a flag strategy.” Eddie tapped off the alarm on his watch as his sunscreen reminder went off. In truth Eddie didn’t really care if they won the game overall. But if Tamarack was going to lose its flag, he would be damned if they lost it to Spruce. 

Of course, saying they needed to come up with a strategy was easy but getting seven kids to agree on one was a whole other matter. Their ideas varied from the impractical (Danny thought they should convince the other cabins to sell them their flags) to the insane (Matthew wanted to light the cabins on fire and then pull the flags from them). In the end they didn’t use any of their ‘plans’ and instead went with Eddie’s. 

Rather than risk getting caught sneaking around other cabins and announcing they were playing seriously this year they would watch the other cabins and wait for one of them to slip up and show their hand. 

The boys lost interest in it after a few days, more interested in recounting the tale of how Steven had accidently tipped over the kayak he and Matthew were in or in teasing John for his newfound love of birds (courteous of Stan’s early morning birdwatching class). Eddie wasn’t about to give up that easily though, he could now see Arthur’s point that it really was the counselors who won the game almost as much as the cabins. He could think of a few exceptions of course because Eddie knew the first time they won their counselor had nothing to do with it. 

_“Holy shit can they hurry it up?” Richie complained as the staff gave their end of the summer speech. All six of them were antsy, bouncing on the balls of their feet and waiting for the request for the cabins to show their flags. Even Bev, who wasn’t in their cabin and wouldn’t share the win, was anxiously chewing on her fingernails. Eddie reached out to pull her hand away from her mouth, did she not know how much bacteria there was under a person’s nails?_

_“Do you think we got enough?” Mike asked softly, looking down at the two flags in his hands._

_“Are you kidding?” Bill whispered. “We have over half the flags. We won.”_

_“It's not official yet.” Stan reminded him, tapping him lightly on the arm with the flag in his hand._

_“Your mom wants to make it official.” Richie said brightly (and loudly judging by the looks he was getting). “Too bad I’m already promised to Mrs. K.”_

_Eddie rolled his eyes and shoved Richie's shoulder. “You’re an ass Tozier.”_

_“What was that about my ass Eds?” Richie grinned and tossed his arm around Eddie’s shoulder, waggling his eyebrows at him suggestively._

_“I still can’t believe we found so many.” Ben whispered, cutting off the start of Eddie and Richie's argument._

_“No need to rub it in.” Bev joked, nudging Ben lightly and making him blush a bright red._

_Honestly Eddie couldn’t believe how many they’d found either. They had found six of the cabins’ flags and adding in their own they had seven of the ten cabins’ flags. Eddie couldn’t remember the last time a cabin had won with so many, usually one had four and the rest were scattered in smaller groups. It hadn’t been an easy feat, some of the cabins had been particularly crafty this year and for one of the flags Richie had to climb on Mike’s shoulders to reach where it rested in between two beams in the roof. Their counselor hadn’t been any help, too interested in sneaking off to the girls' side of camp where his girlfriend worked. All of the dirt and late-night hunting were worth it though because they had seven dark green flags waiting to be waved in victory._

_They already knew that they had won by a landslide but all of them were waiting anxiously for the moment that they could cheer about it. Finally, the moment came and Jack asked the cabins to group together and hold up their flags. The six campers of Cedar all held up a flag (Mike holding two as he had done the most work) and began to cheer as Jack announced them the winners._

_Beverly jumped up and down beside them as they shouted and laughed and Eddie knew it was just a silly game but, in that moment, he felt better than he had ever felt in his whole life. Richie wrapped his arms around him then, pulling him off his feet and completely ignoring Eddie’s protests. He dropped him back to the ground before placing a loud kiss on Eddie’s cheek and Eddie felt his face flush as Richie pulled away to jump on Ben._

_Eddie let Bill pull him into a hug as his fingers went up to hover over where Richie’s mouth had touched his face. Never mind. That had been the best moment of his whole life._

He spent his afternoon off walking the campgrounds, pretending that he was just enjoying a lazy summer day when really Eddie was doing some much needed recon. There were rules that counselors couldn’t physically take the flags from cabins but that didn’t mean that Eddie couldn’t find where they were and guide his campers. He was particularly interested in where Spruce kept theirs hidden but so far, he had yet to catch one of them checking on its location. 

It didn’t matter, his recon still managed to catch one of the boys in Fir tuck a stray piece of green up into the gutter and Eddie fought to keep his pace even as he headed off to the arts and craft tent to find his campers and let them know they had their first flag to steal. 

They managed to reach the flag while the residents of Fir were down at the lake. Dorsey and Danny lifted Regie up and he managed to pry the flag loose from where it was stashed while Eddie stood by and watched nervously. He hated feeling like he couldn’t help them especially when they decided to hide their new flag on their cabin in the same spot and he had to watch the lifting process take place again. 

“We’re good at this!” Dorsey said happily when they were done and the group was walking to the mess hall. “Think you can convince them to let us do the ropes course Eddie?” he asked hopefully and for the third time that week. His older brother’s cabin had gone up it on Monday and Dorsey had been full of outrage ever since when he learned everyone in their cabin was too short to attempt it this year. 

“Sorry buddy, rules are rules.” Eddie said, feeling a twinge of guilt even though he knew the rules were there for a good reason. 

“Do you like the rope course?” John asked curiously as he picked up an odd shaped rock from the ground, peered at it closely, and then stuffed it into his pocket. Eddie would bet money he was going to show it to Stan later. 

“Not really.” Eddie admitted, he tried really hard not to lie to his campers even if it meant that they didn’t think he was as cool as some of the other staff 

“Why not?” Regie asked curiously, his eyes wide. 

“Not a fan of heights I guess.” Eddie shrugged, his eyes narrowing as Richie turned around the corner of the mess hall just as he said this. 

“Good thing you’re not any taller than huh Eds?” Richie grinned, because of course he’d heard Eddie’s comment. It was fine though; Eddie could handle jokes about his height. He was not sensitive about it at all thank you very much. 

“That’s not my name.” Eddie snapped barely managing to hold back the ‘asshole’ at the end of the statement. He watched with annoyance as Richie exchanged high-fives with his campers who greeted him happily. 

“If you see Benverly can you tell them it’s a no go for me this Saturday?” Richie asked, using the pet name he had taken to referring to Ben and Bev with the summer they started dating. 

“Can’t you tell them yourself?” Eddie sighed but Richie was already walking away, calling a ‘Thanks!’ over his shoulder as he went. Eddie’s campers headed on without him to the door as Eddie yelled after Richie’s retreating form, “I’m not an owl!” 

The wind floated the sound of Richie’s laughter back to him and since none of his campers were around Eddie permitted himself one tiny whisper, “Asshole.” 

The word left an unpleasant taste in his mouth as if he no longer believed what he was saying. 

_“Benverly, you two are so sweet it’s making me nauseous.” Richie fake gagged as he looked across the grass where Bev and Ben sat holding hands. Beverly flipped him off but Ben blushed and looked down at the ground embarrassed._

_“Don’t be a dick Richie.” Bill sighed, throwing a blade of grass at him._

_After a brief but intense battle of grass throwing Stan finally managed to pry Bill and Richie apart and they all stood to head out to the lake, the afternoon had grown rather warm._

_Eddie lingered at the back of the group, watching as Bev swung her and Ben’s hands with a laugh. He knew it was perfectly normal behavior for sixteen year olds to date but Eddie didn’t think that he would ever be able to work up the courage to actually ask someone out._

_“Why you look so sad Spaghetti? Your favorite hand sanitizer get discontinued or something?” the unwitting object of Eddie’s affection asked, falling back from the group to walk beside him._

_Eddie rolled his eyes at this. As if they would ever stop making Purell. “Just thinking.” Eddie muttered, biting down on his tongue so that he didn’t accidently add ‘about you’. It was hard enough having a crush on a boy he only saw ten weeks out of the year (not to mention a boy he was pretty sure didn’t even like other boys) Eddie did not need to make any of those ten weeks awkward by telling said boy that he liked him._

_“Hey Eds?” Richie asked coming to a stop. Eddie looked over at him curiously so surprised by the hesitation in his tone that he didn’t even snap at him not to call him that. Eddie followed the line of Richie’s sight to where he was watching Bev press a kiss to Ben’s cheek with a pinched look on his face. Eddie felt his stomach drop. He’d always thought Richie didn’t have romantic feelings for Bev but maybe he was even worse at reading that kind of thing than he’d thought._

_“Have you ever kissed anyone?” Richie blurted making Eddie stare at him in shock._

_That had not been a question he’d expected from Richie. they didn’t talk about things like that, or at least Eddie didn’t. Richie loved to brag about his dick and supposed vagarious sex life. Considering the majority of the jokes contained someone's mother Eddie didn’t believe a word of it._

_“Yes.” Eddie answered honestly, crossing his fingers behind his back that Richie wouldn’t ask him who._

_Richie blinked at him owlishly before tossing his head back and cheering. “Wow! Eddie Spaghetti let someone put their germ filled mouth on his. Never thought I’d live to see the day.” Richie grinned at him lewdly, wiggling his eyebrows. “Who’s the lucky lady?”_

_Eddie swallowed hard and for a moment he considered making up a name and taking the out that Richie had just unknowingly given him. But Eddie didn’t want to lie, he had never liked to lie especially to his friends. Besides, he shouldn’t have to lie about this, no one should. He liked who he liked and who he liked was boys. If Richie couldn’t handle that, that was his problem not Eddie’s._

_Taking a deep breath to steel his courage Eddie met Richie’s eyes and answered honestly, “Bill.”_

_Richie didn’t say anything for a long moment and Eddie found himself wanting to tell him the story, how he and Bill had kissed on the floor of Bill’s bedroom eight months ago because they were both knee deep in the middle of a sexuality crisis and wanted to know if they even liked kissing boys. The kiss had lasted maybe three seconds and had been extremely awkward and neither of them had ever brought it up again. The end verdict for both of them was that yes, they liked kissing boys but no, they did not like kissing each other. Eddie supposed it was an alright kiss all in all but he didn’t have anything to compare it to so he couldn’t be too sure._

_He wanted to say all if this but his throat was too dry to get even a single word out. Eddie couldn’t remember the last time Richie had been silent for so long._

_After what felt like a lifetime Richie grinned at him, taking off his glasses to wipe away smudges on his t-shirt. “You and Big Bill huh? Gotta say, did not see that one coming Eds.”_

_“Must be because your glasses were dirty.” Eddie managed to joke although his voice did sound slightly hoarse. He felt a wave of relief wash over him that Richie didn’t seem to hate him now, that he was still able to look at him with his shiny eyes and smile._

_He was about to tell Richie that there was no ‘him and Big Bill’ that it was a one time thing but then Mike was calling for them to join the others in the water and Richie was grinning and running off like a shot. Eddie chased after him figuring that it could wait a little while longer._

“You stay and play, I’ll go back and get it for you.” Eddie sighed before shaking his head at Adam. “You need to be more mindful of where you keep your things.” 

“Sorry Eddie.” Adam mumbled looking down at his shoes. 

Eddie felt a pang of guilt at the look of sadness on the boy’s face. He reminded himself Adam was just a kid and he was so used to moving fast from one place to the other that he was bound to forget things now and then. 

“It's fine.” Eddie reassured him before gesturing to where Mike was separating them and the girls from Oak into two teams for soccer. “Go play, I’ll be right back.” 

“Thanks!” Adam cried before running off to join the pack. Eddie caught Trisha’s eye and motioned that he’d be right back and she gave him a thumbs up in response. 

Once he was out of earshot of the campers Eddie let out a sigh and hurried along the path to reach the science cabin where Adam had left behind his lucky lanyard again. For something he considered so lucky he was certainly forgetful with it. 

Eddie was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice the raised voices until he was inside the cabin and Stan and Bill both turned to the open door in surprise. 

“Am I interrupting?” Eddie looked between the two of them in concern. Stan huffed and glared up at the ceiling, leaning back against the counter as Bill ran a hand over his face and shook his head. Eddie looked at each of them before shaking his head and slumping against the doorframe. He couldn’t handle their weird relationship and Richie’s return this summer. One of those things was going to have to give. “Okay enough of this shit. What the fuck is going on with you two?” 

Stan and Bill looked at him in shock which Eddie rolled his eyes at. He waited for Bill to throw a question about Richie to deflect Eddie’s attention but all he did was sigh and drop into one of the plastic seats in defeat. 

“It was an accident Stan I swear.” Bill promised as he propped his elbows on the table and rested his head on his hands. 

Eddie looked over at Stan curiously when he snorted. “You made fun of it all summer and then suddenly everything was ruined. Exactly what part of that was an accident?” 

A dawning of clarity came over Eddie and he remembered two summers ago when Stan had worked in the science cabin. He’d found an abandoned nest in the woods during the first few weeks of camp and he’d made incubators with some of the campers and placed the eggs in them. One of Eddie’s own campers had been involved with the project and had been filled with excitement at the thought of seeing baby birds hatch. Stan had even come up with plans and materials to keep the birds fed once they hatched. Then two days before camp ended Stan had come into the science cabin to find that the heat lamps had been turned off during the night and the eggs had long gone cold. Eddie wasn’t entirely sure they would have hatched anyway but there was certainly no chance for them after that. Eddie had always assumed someone had turned the lights off on accident or the bulbs burned out but apparently Stan did not share those thoughts. 

“I didn’t mean to turn the lights off!” Bill cried, lifting his head to stare at Stan pleadingly. “I didn’t know they were attached to the light switch!” 

“Why were you even in the cabin at night?” Stan snapped, both of them acting like Eddie was no longer there. 

“I was looking for you!” Bill cried, jumping to his feet in a move that sent his chair skidding backwards and caused Eddie to jump in surprise. Stan merely crossed his arms over his chest and continued to stare at Bill unimpressed. 

“Why?” Stan asked, raising one eyebrow in a move Eddie had always coveted. 

“Because camp was about to end and I wanted to ask you out before it did.” Bill snapped; the niceness of his words lost with his tone. 

Eddie shifted awkwardly, torn between leaving the room and wanting to see how this played out. 

Stan narrowed his eyes as Bill shook his head and continued, “You were convinced I turned off the lights on p-purpose from day one but I _didn’t_. I just wanted to see you and when you weren’t there, I flipped the switch when I left on instinct. I didn’t know it would kill the incubators I swear. I never would have hurt the eggs on purpose I promise.” 

He knew that he should definitely leave now but Eddie’s curiosity kept him rooted to the spot. Besides, he told himself, he couldn’t leave without Adam’s lanyard. 

“Why'd you tease me about the eggs all summer then?” Stan asked, his arms still crossed defensively. Eddie felt like he could finally understand Stan’s short terse answers in the group chat now. Now if only he could get an explanation for Richie’s silence everything would be great. 

“I was flirting with you!” Bill cried throwing his hands in the air. 

Eddie wrinkled his brow and tried to think back to that summer. Either Bill never flirted with Stan in front of him or he was really bad at flirting because until about two minutes ago Eddie had no idea Bill even had a crush on Stan and they’d been best friends for a decade and a half. Maybe Eddie was just really bad at picking up on that kind of thing. 

“You need flirting lessons.” Stan finally responded although his voice lacked some of its earlier anger. Bill’s shoulders untensed and Eddie looked between the two of them, both of them still completely ignoring his presence, and felt like he had intruded for long enough. Thankfully he spotted Adam’s lanyard on the table closest to him and he took two steps to grab it before backing out of the room. 

Neither Stan nor Bill looked at him once. 

Bill didn’t say anything to Eddie about what happened in the science cabin after he left but Eddie noticed a decidedly obvious lack of tension between him and Stan so he figured it had gone well. Stan no longer got a pinched look on his face when Bill talked and at dinner one night, he even cracked a smile at one of Bill’s bad dad jokes. That was as big a sign that things were good between the two of them that Eddie was likely to get. 

He considered talking to Richie and airing his own grievances with him since it seemed to have worked so well for Stan and Bill but every time he saw Richie alone (which wasn’t often) Eddie managed to talk himself out of it. It was easy to convince himself that he was okay with their new relationship. They'd moved past Eddie glaring at him all the time to actually being able to be in the same room as Richie without muttering mean things under his breath or shooting dangers at him when he breathed too loud. That was enough improvement for Eddie at the moment. 

There were still six weeks left of summer to get through, he could work on forgiveness later. 

The days of the week didn't matter very much at camp except for two exceptions. On Friday nights some of the campers put on plays and skits and on Sundays the whole camp came together to play a game, campers and counselors both. 

This Sunday was Sardines, or opposite hide-and-seek as Georgie liked to call it. 

One person hid and all of the other people looked for them. If you found the person hiding then you had to hide with them too until finally only one person was left looking and all of the other players were hiding somewhere together, usually packed in tight like sardines, hence the name. 

It wasn’t a bad game but it definitely wasn’t one of Eddie favorites, especially when the sun was shining down as hot as it was that day. When his sunscreen alarm went off Eddie had a hell of a time roping down his cabin to make them reapply it but he did manage to get some of Lisa’s cabin to put some on too so he supposed it was an even trade. 

They were on their third round of the game when Eddie suddenly realized that he was the only person left looking. The whole camp minus the cabins and the nurse’s tent were fair game so the others could be anywhere. Sighing Eddie began trudging in defeat towards the only place he hadn’t looked yet, the mess hall. He knew before he even opened the door that he should have looked there first considering that the first-person hiding had been Andi Lamonica and that was where she’d hidden the last three years. 

“Took you long enough!” Richie called as Eddie opened the door and everyone cheered. 

“Yeah yeah.” Eddie rolled his eyes, looking hopefully at the water station in the corner. “Are we done now?” 

“Not yet.” Mike grinned as he got to his feet and tossed Eddie a water bottle. “I figure we got one or two more rounds left in us, what do you say kids?” 

Eddie hid his groan under the loud cheers from the campers. “Does someone else want to be it?” he asked hopefully, looking at the kids. 

“Don’t be a poor sport Eddie.” Bill grinned from where he sat next to Georgie who smirked at Eddie and waved him towards the door. “You lost so you’re it.” 

Biting back curses Eddie clenched the water bottle in his hand and turned towards the door as the campers began to loudly count down from a hundred behind him. 

The sun shone down mercilessly on his head as Eddie sped walked across the grass unsure of where to go. He didn’t want to hide somewhere so hard that the game lasted longer than it had to but he also didn’t want to hide somewhere so easy that the camp teased him for it. He also wanted to hide somewhere with shade or he was going to come down with heat stroke before the day was done. 

An idea came to him then and despite the heat Eddie quickly ran down towards the water where the kayaks were stored. One of them was separate from the stands, flipped upside down so that the bottom of the boat could be repainted. Eddie dropped down to his knees and peered underside it, there was plenty enough room for him to lie down. Carefully he tilted the kayak up and then slipped under it, hoping that the marks in the sand wouldn’t be too obvious. 

It was small and cramped under the kayak and Eddie knew no one else would likely be able to fit underneath it but that was kind of the point. He always thought people played this game too obviously at first, hiding in big places where lots of people could hide and not be caught. Eddie always played the other way, hiding in a small space and then letting the crowd find each other because it was clear where they all were. At that point it was really who was just the fastest to reach the group who won. 

Eddie sat up on his elbows, the top of his head brushing the wood floor of the kayak as he slowly drank the water Mike had given him. The ache behind Eddie’s eyes abated as Mike proved yet again that he was a godsend. 

Laying back down Eddie noticed that there was just enough space for him to see under the lip of the kayak. He could just make out the blue of the lake water lapping the shore and the worn wooden boards of the dock. Eddie squeezed his eyes shut tight and turned to stare in the darkness of the kayak as he tried not to think about the dock and what had happened there. 

It worked but instead Eddie found himself reliving the memory of the last time he had seen Richie before he’d arrived back in Eddie’s life this summer with all the grace of a hand grenade. 

_It was the end of their last summer as campers and if it wasn’t for the fact that Hilda had already personally encouraged him to apply as a counselor next year Eddie probably would have been a sobbing mess on the floor. As it was, he was having a hard-enough time saying goodbye to his friends, he felt lucky he wasn’t having to say goodbye to the camp too._

_“I’ll see you right here next summer.” Ben promised as he wrapped Eddie in a tight hug, nearly lifting his feet off the ground._

_Eddie nodded in agreement, remembering all of their promise from the night before. “See you then.” he agreed before he turned to the last member of their rag tag group he had yet to say goodbye to. Well, technically he hadn’t said goodbye to Bill either but he never had to say goodbye to Bill so he didn’t count. The last day of camp had always been the worst day of Eddie’s summers. This year it sat heavy on him like a weight on his chest as he shuffled across the dirt lot to where Richie hovered near his parents’ car, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his bright orange shorts._

_“I’ll see you next summer?” Eddie had meant it to come out confidentially but his voice hitched up on the last word, making it into a question. He was having a hard time being close to Richie after the night before. He kept looking over at the docks all morning and blushing. Stan had commented on how red his face was after breakfast and Eddie had lied, claiming sunburn. He was pretty sure no one was fooled._

_Richie shrugged his lanky shoulders as he smiled at him looking almost sheepish. Eddie felt his heart speed up at the smile and he tried to stop his own mouth from stretching into a smile but no such luck. Richie always managed to break through Eddie’s indifferent mask._

_They stood in silence for a long moment neither one of them wanting to be the first one to say goodbye. Eddie couldn’t figure out the words to say after the night before. Did he say thank you? Did he tell Richie he would miss him? This was uncharted territory for them and so Eddie found himself saying nothing, staring down at his feet as his sneakers brought up little dust clouds as he scuffed his foot along the dirt._

_“Well stay in touch Eddie.” Richie finally said with a shrug as his parents waved him on. Richie took his hands out of his pockets and for a moment Eddie thought he was going to pull him in for a hug but all he did was linger his hands in midair awkwardly for a moment before putting one on either of Eddie’s shoulders and squeezing them tightly. He’d turned and folded his long limbs into the car before Eddie had anytime to react._

_It wasn’t until a few minutes later as Eddie watched the Tozier’s car pull away, Richie’s face peering back out at him from the rearview window, that he realized that was the first time he had ever heard Richie call him Eddie. He had spent the last ten summers trying to get the other boy to call him by his name but to no avail._

_Swallowing down the lump in his throat Eddie lifted his hand to return the wave Richie was giving him, flipping him off when Richie did and practically able to hear the laugh the boy gave before the car turned out of sight. The lump began to take up residence again and Eddie drew a shaky breath suddenly certain that with the use of his name Richie was confirming what Eddie had been afraid of all morning._

_Something between them had broken. Because with the use of his name Eddie was sure that Richie had just told him goodbye._

The sound of footsteps drew Eddie’s mind back to the present and he held his breath as he waited for the footsteps to pass by. Instead he heard them draw ever closer and Eddie let out a small breath of relief that his hiding place was easy enough to find. He was willing to guess at least ten minutes had passed and he was beginning to grown worried he’d be spending the rest of the afternoon hiding. 

A flare of light made Eddie startle and throw his hands up over his eyes as someone lifted the kayak up off him high enough to slither in next to him. Eddie could feel the person’s body pressed against his side and he realized with a flash of panic he hadn’t thought this hiding spot through. He had expected for whoever found him to hide next to the kayak not try to fit under it with him and Eddie was not about to be in such close quarters with an underage camper. 

“Cozy choice Spaghetti.” 

Eddie didn’t think he had ever felt such relief to hear Richie’s voice, the relief was even more surprising considering what memory he’d just had playing through his mind. 

“Don’t call me that.” he muttered, a kneejerk reaction at this point. 

He could feel the rough wood of the kayak brushing against his arm and Richie’s body pressed against his whole left side. Eddie drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes as the smell of Richie’s soap overwhelmed his senses. Yeah, he really had not thought this whole hiding place through at all. 

They lay side by side in silence for a long moment before Richie spoke, clearly trying to keep his voice light although it cracked on the last word. “Still hate me? 

Eddie kept his eyes screwed shut and tried to pretend he couldn’t feel Richie’s bare leg against his. “Never hated you.” he lied. He really did not want to get into this now, here cramped against each other under a kayak with the dock spitting distance away. 

Richie snorted. “Still pissed at me?” he asked instead, continuing after Eddie didn’t respond. “You can really hold a grudge huh Kaspbrak? You know Staniel took a summer off and you’re not pissed at him so why am I-” 

Eddie’s eyes popped open at the mention of Stan and his mind started to whirl. Stan had nothing to do with why Eddie was so pissed at Richie, not a single damn thing. Eddie felt coldness start to trickle through his body despite the heat and his muscles tensed as he realized his assumption all summer had been right. Richie wasn’t sorry for what Eddie was even mad about. He didn’t even know why Eddie was so mad, and more importantly so _hurt_ by what Richie had done. 

“I’m curious.” Eddie begin, barely managing to get the words out through his clenched teeth. “What exactly do you think I’m pissed at you for?” 

That seemed to give Richie pause and Eddie could almost see the look of hesitation on his face before he said slowly, as if he himself was only now unsure. “Because I broke our promise to work at the camp three summers ago...” he trailed off at the end, each word coming out sounding less and less sure of itself. 

Eddie let out a short laugh of disbelief. “Is that seriously what you think I’m pissed about?” Part of him wanted to let Richie keep on thinking that, sure it painted Eddie in a bad light but at least it wasn’t full of all the embarrassing real reasons why Eddie was furious with him. When Richie didn’t say anything in response Eddie found that he couldn’t keep the words at bay any longer, breaking his promise to himself to never think about that moment again. 

“I’m pissed at you because you kissed me and then ghosted me for three years you dickwad.”


	6. Chapter 6

_The water was so cold that Eddie could feel goosebumps all over his arms even after he’d been swimming for several minutes. It seemed like his body was refusing to either get used to the cold or go numb by it. He was beginning to understand why the camp never did any kind of night swims. His teeth were chattering so hard in his head he couldn’t hear his own thoughts._

_Despite the cold Eddie stayed in the water. He wanted to be here, to be present, no matter the chill he was bound to have when he woke up in the morning. This was the last night of summer, the last night all seven of them would ever be here together like this as campers. Sure, they’d all promised to come back next year but Eddie knew it wasn’t going to be the same. They would be adults then, have responsibilities. The sensation of freedom he had when he leaned back to float in the water and stare up at the starry sky above him, this was something Eddie was sure he would never feel again._

_Hands grabbed him around the middle then, snaking around his waist to pull him deep under the surface. Eddie shouted in surprise and got a mouthful of water in response. He managed to twist out of the arms around his torso and popped up out of the water, spluttering and glaring at Richie as he emerged in front of him smirking._

_“Asshole.” Eddie whispered, mindful of the fact that sound carried over water. They couldn’t exactly get punished since it was the last night of camp but Eddie didn’t want there to be any marks against them when they applied for jobs next year._

_“You looked so peaceful Eds.” Richie explained, starting to swim in small circles around Eddie. “Someone had to fix that.”_

_“Don’t call me that.” Eddie sighed, his heart racing. He didn’t think it had anything to do with the scare Richie had given him anymore._

_Eddie shivered in spite of himself and Richie looked at him in concern. “Let’s get out for a bit.” he said suddenly, already turning to swim noisily to the docks without waiting for Eddie to answer. Eddie spared one look for where the rest of their friends were out swimming near the buoys before he followed after Richie. He told himself it was because he wanted to get out of the water for a few minutes but Eddie knew that was a lie. He just wanted to be as close to Richie as he could while he still had the chance. It was a feeling he had grown familiar with over the summer._

_The slight breeze on his skin made Eddie shiver even harder as he clambered up the ladder to the dock. Richie sat there waiting for him, his glasses back on and a towel tucked around his shoulders. He held it open so that Eddie could slide in beside him. They were close enough together that their whole sides were touching and Eddie gripped one corner of the towel to hold it around himself and wondered if Richie could feel his heart racing with the arm that still rested around his shoulders._

_They sit in silence for a long moment, the longest Eddie had ever seen Richie be quiet. Eddie could just see the shapes of their friends splashing out in the far water and the sight made a bittersweet smile come to Eddie’s face. He couldn’t believe that they were out here, that they had actually gotten him to break a rule. He felt rebellious and invincible and it was almost enough to diminish his sadness that his final summer as a camper was over, that childhood was coming to an end whether he liked it or not._

_“This was the best summer.” Richie suddenly declared, leaning his head just slightly so that it rested against Eddie’s. Eddie suddenly felt his chest close up and he panicked for a moment thinking he had picked up a parasite in the lake. Then his lungs figured out how to work again and he realized it had just been because of Richie’s closeness._

_Eddie made a noise of agreement because he didn’t trust his vocal cords to work._

_“I can think of only one way to end the perfect summer.” Richie continued and Eddie waited for him to make a joke about his mom or to suggest they go streaking or something equally Richie like. Instead Eddie nearly toppled back into the water when Richie whispered so faintly Eddie almost didn't hear him over the hooting of a nearby owl. “Kissing you.”_

_He had definitely picked up something in the lake because Eddie had to be hearing things now. His heart was racing at the speed of light and despite the fact that he was still shivering his palms were sweaty. He totally had a fever, he was hallucinating._

_Just on the very rare minuscule chance that he wasn’t making this up in a fever dream Eddie forced his mouth to get out one little word, “Okay.”_

_Richie turned to face him; eyes wide behind his glasses. Eddie began to panic that maybe he had hallucinated or that maybe Richie had said it as a joke but before he could get too far into his panic attack Richie was closing the small distance between them and kissing him._

_His mouth was warm and soft and Eddie felt his entire body shiver in happiness at the sensation. He’d only been dreaming of this moment for the past three summers. Eddie dropped the towel in his hand to reach up and slip his fingers into Richie's constantly messy hair, the locks slippery around his fingers. Eddie had only ever had one other kiss in his life so he didn’t have a lot to compare it too but he knew then with startling clarity that he would never enjoy kissing anyone as much as he did kissing Richie._

_It was a bit of a terrifying thought to have at seventeen so Eddie shoved it away to dwell on later, choosing instead to focus on this moment, on the feel of Richie’s lips and Richie’s hand and just Richie._

_They pull apart before Eddie wants to even though they are both breathless. Richie ran the pad of his thumb over Eddie’s bottom lip and for once Eddie didn’t have a single thought about when he last washed his hands or anything. He just leaned his face into Richie’s hands and stared at him in wonder._

_Richie had been right, that was the perfect ending to the summer._

The underside of the kayak seemed to have gotten even smaller so Eddie was pretty sure the rules for the space time continuum were warped under there. He focused on taking short even breaths while he waited for Richie to defend his avoidance of Eddie or to pretend he didn’t know what he was talking about. He seethed silently as he waited for Richie to confirm what Eddie had feared for the last three years, that the kiss had been about testing Richie's sexuality much like the time Bill and Eddie had kissed. Only that time the answer to whether or not he liked boys had been a big NO, or at the very least it was a no for if he liked Eddie. 

Eddie still cringed when he thought back to that night, how elated he had felt by the kiss and how Richie had held his hand as they walked at the back of the group to their cabin. He had laid in his bunk that night, running his fingers over his lips like he could still feel Richie’s lips there and wondering if this meant that Richie was going to ask him to be his boyfriend. Those silly foolish hopes made Richie's dismissal of him even worse and after months of his texts going unread and his messages ignored Eddie finally realized just how stupid he had been. Richie had never really wanted to kiss him at all. It had all been just another big Tozier joke to him. Eddie was so sick of being the punchline in his material. 

“I was an asshole. No, I _am_ an asshole.” Richie whispered into the darkness, cutting off Eddie’s inner rant. Eddie twisted his head sideways so that he could see the outline of Richie's features in the dark. There was enough light for him to make out Richie turning his face to look at him. 

“You have every right to be pissed. I was a grade A douchebag.” Richie continued causing Eddie to gape at him. In every way he had imagined this scenario acting out he had never considered Richie actually agreeing with his side. 

“A plus douchebag.” Eddie managed to mutter around his shock. 

Richie snorted and nodded, his wild hair brushing Eddie’s cheek as he did. 

“It's not an excuse but I ignored you because I’m a fucking coward.” Richie spoke over Eddie when he started to interject which was a good thing because Eddie had no idea what he was about to say. Tell him not to call himself names? To agree with him? It was better for them both that Richie talked over him. 

“I didn’t want to admit that I liked guys. I didn’t want to admit it to you or my parents or my friends but most of all I didn’t want to admit it to me.” Eddie couldn’t remember the last time he had ever heard Richie be this serious but before he could realize it was because he had never heard Richie be serious Richie added on, “Of course, I didn't want to tell your mom either. I knew she’d be heartbroken to lose all this.” 

He waved down at himself and Eddie dug his elbow into his ribs in response. The mom jokes had stopped being funny, well no they had never been funny. 

“After we kissed, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. It was like the skeleton in my closet had just donned a rainbow top hat and started dancing all the time. I knew I couldn’t talk to you until I was ready to be out to everyone because I didn’t want to make you be in a relationship with someone who wasn’t willing to hold your hand in public.” 

Richie shifted slightly, his bony arms poking Eddie in the stomach as he moved. “I’m out and proud now. Well proud to be out, not proud of how I treated you.” 

Eddie sighed and stared up at the dark floor of the kayak, his mind whirling. He remembered how hard it had been for him to come to terms with his own sexuality, he knew that it wasn’t exactly an easy thing to face especially depending on one's family. While having an explanation made some of his anger fade away it did nothing to ease the hurt that sat so heavy in his chest whenever he looked at Richie and remembered what they used to have. 

“You made me feel like an experiment.” Eddie whispered, the words coming out shakier than he meant them too. He blamed it on the darkness, emotions always rose closer to the surface in the dark. 

“Fuck.” Richie breathed, and Eddie saw him turn to look at him. “I’m so fucking sorry Eds.” 

“You couldn’t have just told me any of this?” Eddie asked softly ignoring the nickname as he crossed his arms over his chest, whacking Richie in the process. “We were best friends.” 

“That was the problem.” Richie insisted, rubbing his chest where Eddie’s arm had hit him. “I didn’t want to be just your friend.” 

Eddie tried to ignore the leaping of his heart at those words, forcibly reminding himself that it was three years too late. “Why didn’t you talk to me once you were out?” He didn’t go on to add that he would have hung out with Richie even if he wasn’t out, he would have gladly dated him even in secret. There were some things Richie just didn’t need to know. 

“I was going too.” Richie admitted, his voice suddenly small. “I went to your facebook to send you a message but...” 

Richie trailed off until Eddie nudged him lightly. “What? Did you honestly think I would be mad at you for needing time to come out?” 

“That wasn’t it.” Richie shifted nervously. For a moment Eddie didn’t think he was going to answer him and Eddie was getting ready to bother him until he did when Richie spoke very fast, “I saw this picture of you and Bill and I couldn’t message you after that.” 

Eddie’s brow furrowed in confusion. He posted pictures with Bill all the time, they were roommates and best friends after all, so he didn’t know what photo Richie could be talking about. He didn’t understand why a photo would stop Richie from contacting him though, it wasn’t like Bill and him weren’t also friends. 

“So?” Eddie finally asked when it became apparent Richie was not going to continue without prompting. Eddie felt slightly off balance like he was misunderstanding something vitally important. 

“So, I didn’t want to be a homewrecker.” Richie said quickly. 

Eddie shook his head in confusion as the kayak suddenly lifted off them and bright light flooded the space. Eddie barely bit back a curse as he and Richie both flung their hands over their eyes and a small camper squealed above them before trying to worm her way under the kayak as well. 

Throughout the rest of the day Eddie kept trying to get a moment to pull Richie aside but he never got the chance. He could feel some of the animosity he’d been harboring slowly leak away like the air out of a balloon but left in its place was confusion. He still did not agree with how Richie had treated him but it was hard to continue to be so mad after he’d gotten an apology. That was most of what he had wanted anyway. Eddie still didn’t understand what he had meant about Bill and he kept trying to get Richie alone to make him explain but he didn’t find a chance until the following morning at breakfast. 

Both of their cabins went on in front of them as Eddie motioned for Richie to follow him around the corner. Instead of stopping Richie continued past him, leading him far into the trees to where Eddie knew was the secret spot the counselors used to smoke. 

Eddie followed after him with a huff, his mind already racing as to how he was supposed to get the smell of smoke off his clothes. Remembering they only had a few minutes Eddie shoved the thought away, not even waiting for Richie to come to a stop before he blurted, “What did you mean about me and Bill?” 

Richie seemed to find lighting his cigarette fascinating and it took him a few tries before he shrugged and muttered around it, “Billiam’s not my taste but you two seem great for each other. I wasn’t about to try to get between that after I'd fucked up and wasted my shot.” 

A laugh bubbled out of Eddie’s mouth in spite of himself. He didn’t know what he had expected Richie to say but it had not been that. He saw a flash of hurt on Richie’s face so Eddie quickly explained, “Bill and I aren’t dating. We’ve never dated.” 

Richie let his cigarette burn down to the filter as he stared at him for a long moment. Eddie was getting worried he was going to burn his hand before Richie screwed his eyes tightly shut before whispering hoarsely, “Tell me you’ve fucked then, at least once. So that I don’t feel like such a huge dick right now.” 

“We just kissed the one time.” Eddie admitted, feeling more confused than ever. Was this really why Richie hadn’t talked to him? Over some stupid misjudged facebook photo? They’d lost three years of friendship (and maybe more his mind whispered) because of this? 

Richie dropped his cigarette into the dirt and ground it out forcefully before stooping and picking up the butt, shoving it into his pocket to dispose of later. He seemed remarkably calm so Eddie nearly jumped out of his skin when Richie suddenly tipped his head back and screamed at the top of his lungs, “Fuck!” 

Scanning the area for campers Eddie shushed Richie but his pleas fell on deaf ears. 

“Are you telling me I avoided you for three years not because I was being polite and the bigger man, but because I am the world’s biggest fucking idiot?” Richie asked calmly as he shoved his hands into his pockets. 

“Erm, I don’t know if I would word it that way.” Eddie said nervously although in truth he probably would. 

“Fuck I even stayed away from camp for nothing too.” Richie muttered to himself, raising a hand to pinch between his eyebrows. 

“Why would thinking Bill and I were dating make you avoid the camp?” Eddie couldn’t help himself from asking jumping when Richie glared at him and threw his arms into the air. 

“Gee I dunno Eds, maybe because I've been in love with you for half my life and the thought of watching you be happy with someone else-” 

“You love me?” Eddie asked in surprise, cutting Richie off. He felt like there wasn’t enough air suddenly and Eddie wondered if it was possible that the elevation had gotten higher and he just hadn’t realized it. 

A deep blush spread across Richie’s face like he had only just realized what he had said. 

“I mean, yeah.” Richie shoved his hands back into his pockets and stared at the ground as he continued, “Like I know I’ve been a huge dick and a _total_ idiot but do you think there’s any way I haven’t blown my chance completely to hell?” 

Eddie stared at Richie for a long moment, his mind spinning. This was a lot to take in and he felt like he didn't have enough time to properly think anything over. There was so much to consider, how hurt Eddie had been and why Richie had avoided him. Who they were as kids and who they were as adults. The way kissing Richie had made Eddie feel happy and the shitty way Richie reacted in the aftermath. How Richie could rile Eddie up like no one else and how sometimes he was the only person Eddie wanted to tell things too. How even when he was mad at him one look from Richie could make his heart do flips. How Eddie only ever felt truly seen when he was with Richie. 

“This chance?” Eddie asked slowly as he mulled it over. “Absolutely not.” Richie’s face fell and Eddie felt a surge for guilt before he quickly added. “Lucky for you I believe in second chances.” 

A slow smile spread over Richie’s face as he looked down at Eddie hopefully. Eddie could feel his heart pounding in his chest and hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake with unlocking his feelings for Richie from his heart. 

Richie gave him a solemn nod before stepping close enough to touch, leaning down to whisper softly in Eddie’s ear, “In that case prepare to be wooed Kaspbrak.” 

Being wooed by Richie Tozier could be summed up best by one word, interesting. 

Richie had never been known for doing anything small so Eddie was not the least bit surprised when the majority of his ‘extremely grand and super-duper romantic gestures’ as Richie called them where very public and very loud. 

For the first few days after his declaration of wooing nothing changed. They saw each other briefly at meals and sometimes for a random handful of minutes throughout the day. Nothing was different except for the fact that Eddie could now look at Richie without feeling that familiar burn of betrayal. 

Then came Friday, the day that some of the campers put on little plays and skits for the rest of the camp. Like usual Eddie and his cabin were sitting in the third row because Eddie wanted them to be up front to show Adam some support but not so close to the stage that they got cricks in their necks. The show that evening was a variety of sketches, some more enjoyable than others but it was obvious that every camper involved put a lot of work into them so Eddie made sure to clap exuberantly for each one. After Adam’s song his cabin all stood to clap causing Adam to blush a bright red even as a pleased look crossed his face. 

Eddie settled back down onto the bench seating and cast what he hoped wasn’t an obvious glance at his watch, this play seemed to be taking longer than usual. 

“I would like to dedicate this poem to Sir Edward Kaspbrak.” 

Eddie’s head snapped back up to the stage so fast he was afraid he got whiplash. Rubbing the back of his neck Eddie stared up at Richie in horror as Danny and Dorsey giggled from either side of him. 

Richie stood in the middle of the stage with a long purple robe over his staff t-shirt and red polka dot shorts. He’d pulled his overgrown hair back into a bun and was holding a dropping handful of flowers aloft as he began to recite in a thick accent, “An ode to pasta by Richie Tozier.” 

Hunching his shoulders Eddie could feel his face begin to burn and he really wished it was dark in the bright airy theater because he kept catching campers looking back at him and giggling as Richie continued his long soliloquy about the different types of pasta and how much he loved them. Eddie waited for the floor to open up and swallow him whole but as he watched Eddie felt most of his embarrassment start to fade away. To his surprise Richie’s poem was actually pretty funny, not that he had any intention of telling him that. He kept his face stoic even as the campers dissolved into giggles around him and he heard Ben’s traitorous laugh from the back of the room. 

“And last of course spaghetti! I will love your long noodles until the end of my days and likely even after that.” Richie finished his performance with a dramatic bow before jumping off the stage to applause and walking to where Eddie sat, certain that his face was even redder than Richie's shorts at this point. 

Richie dropped to one knee at the end of the aisle before holding out the bunch of flowers to Eddie as Ben cheered from behind them. “For you lovely Eddie Spaghetti.” Richie declared dramatically. 

Eddie scoffed to cover his embarrassment before reaching forward and taking the flowers from Richie’s hand. He curled them against his chest and tried to ignore the way his heart was pounding in his chest. No one had ever given him flowers before. Of course, no one had ever dedicated an obnoxious poem to him before either so it seemed like today was a first for everything. 

“This is your idea of wooing?” Eddie asked as Richie looked up at him with a grin. 

“Oh no my dear Eds.” Richie shook his head as he jumped to his feet. He leaned around Danny to whisper in Eddie’s ear. “This was just the warm up.” 

Watching him lope back up to the stage Eddie tried to focus on the smell of the flowers in his arms and ignore the feeling of unease that statement brought him. 

One never knew what to expect from Richie after all. 

The next morning when Eddie headed outside to the showers, he found a large heart drawn in the dirt in front of the cabin’s steps. The initials ‘RT + EK’ was written inside the middle of it. 

A goofy smile spread across Eddie’s lips even as he shook his head at Richie’s childish actions. Still, when he stepped down off the steps, he made certain to avoid walking in the heart and messing it up. 

They returned from dinner Sunday to find a bag of marshmallows on Eddie’s bed. Eddie had never been allowed sugar as a kid so the marshmallows at camp had been his first experience with it. They had long since been Eddie’s guilty pleasure comfort food. 

He passed them out to his campers and they all sat in the center of the cabin to eat them since Eddie wouldn’t let them eat food on the beds. 

“Your boyfriend is the best boyfriend ever.” Regie told Eddie seriously around a mouthful of marshmallow. 

Eddie wrinkled his nose at the sight of the half-chewed food in his mouth as he shook his head. “Richie’s not my boyfriend.” 

“Why not?” Regie asked seriously, his little brows crumbled together as he looked up at Eddie in disappointment. 

“He’s just not.” Eddie shrugged, shoving a marshmallow in his mouth in the hopes that the kids would take that as a sign to change the subject. 

He’d forgotten of course that kids didn’t usually pick up on social cues like that. 

“He should be.” Dorsey said sagely before trying to shove a fistful of sweets in his mouth. 

Eddie focused on chewing his own food as he thought this over. His anger at Richie had been steadily fading over the course of the summer and now that he had an explanation for the ghosting it was almost gone completely. Sure, the thought of it still made him a little pissed but it was more like a memory of being mad than actually being mad. He still wished that Richie had handled their kiss and its aftermath better but he knew firsthand how hard it could be to come out, even to one’s self. He couldn't really blame Richie for taking some time to do that. Of course, Richie could have contacted him after he came out to himself so really if Eddie was still mad about any of it now it was the fact that Richie had let one little picture on Facebook keep them apart for three years. But Richie had just been a kid (and kind of still was) so Eddie figured he could forgive him now for all of the hurt his ghosting had caused Eddie. 

As he laughed with his campers and they devoured the marshmallows and fell into a sugar high Eddie let himself do more than just forgive Richie. He actually let himself start to really truly crush on Richie again. 

Once Eddie had decided not to ignore or suppress the feelings that were starting to bloom around Richie (and if he was being 100% honest with himself, the feelings that had never truly gone away) it was like Eddie had lit a neon sign hanging over his head declaring it because Richie amped up his ‘wooing’ actions. 

Monday every activity Eddie took his campers to they found a flower waiting for them. Bill even passed him one as they were leaving the mess hall after lunch. By the end of the day Eddie had a small boquet and he pressed one of the flowers into a book he’d brought with him so that he would have one to take home with him so he wouldn’t forget this summer. Not that he really thought he could. 

Tuesday when they were in the science cabin learning how to make fake volcanos with Stan Richie and his cabin came in to serenade Eddie with a badly sung rendition of a Buddy Holly song. To Eddie’s horror his campers joined in the singing and clapping along. Even Stan looked to be amused by the whole thing although he chewed Richie out later about interrupting his classes. 

Wednesday it rained most of the day so the activities were all moved indoors. Eddie let Richie rope him into playing a game of scrabble with Bill and Ben and all the words Richie played had to do with love or crushes. He also kept trying to spell out variations of Eddie’s names but since none of those were words, he kept forfeiting his turns. In the end Ben crushed them all and he pulled Eddie aside later to tell him how glad he was that things were working out between him and Richie. 

Thursday the skies were clear and bright and the only sign of the rain was the lingering mud that dried up by midday. When they got to the volleyball court a grinning Mike pointed out a painted rock at the edge of the court. It was the size of a fist and painted to look like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Eddie groaned at Richie's desire to make that nickname stick so badly but he still pocketed the rock when no one was looking. 

His campers spent most of Friday out on the lake kayaking so Eddie didn’t except Richie to be able to attempt any wooing that day. He had underestimated Richie's tenacity because when they returned to their cabin that afternoon, he found pieces of macaroni artwork covering the entirety of the wall around his bunk. As his campers oohed and awed Eddie tried to act annoyed about it but he couldn’t stop the smile spreading on his face every time he looked at the pictures or the swoop in his chest that had returned whenever he thought about Richie. 

Most of Saturday passed without an incident so by the end of the day Eddie was beginning to wonder if Richie had reached his quota, if his wooing was now complete. Eddie had to admit that in spite of himself he felt pretty wooed. He wasn’t used to people paying so much attention to him and after years of absence it felt nice to have Richie interested in him again. His eyes had started seeking Richie out whenever they were in the same general vicinity and Eddie knew that Richie had to have caught him looking at him with a dopey smile more than once. 

Eddie knew that if Richie were to ask him out now, Eddie would more than happily say yes. In fact, he was actually beginning to look forward to it. So, when Saturday passed with no sign of wooing Eddie actually found himself heading back to his cabin that night a little bit disappointed. 

Steven and John started tittering as they reached the cabin first and Eddie looked up to see Richie leaning casually against the wall, high-fiving each one of Eddie’s campers as they walked past him to head inside. Richie lifted his hand up higher so that Dorsey had to jump to reach it, both of them laughing when Dorsey nearly knocked Richie’s glasses off his face in the process. 

“Go on. I’ll be up in a minute.” Eddie promised Regie who looked back at him with a wide grin before slapping Richie’s palm and racing up the steps to drag the others into the cabin with him. Eddie had no doubt they would use the time of his absence to try to play a rousing game of hot lava that usually ended with one of them trying to jump across the row of top bunks. Giving himself two minutes to be off the clock Eddie shoved aside worries of scraps and broken bones and leaned against the wall next to Richie, his heart already racing when their arms lightly brushed against each other. 

“Made you this.” Richie said quickly, like he was all too well aware of Eddie’s countdown clock in his head. Whether he was being wooed or not, being a counselor was a job and Eddie took the care of his campers very seriously. 

Eddie reached over to take the offered object curiously, a smile spreading across his face at the sight of the orange and red bracelet in his hands. 

_“This is a Tozier original right here Eds. You should be very honored.” Richie nodded sagely as he presented his cupped hands to Eddie. Laying in his palms like a dead snake was a frayed piece of blue string. Half of it looked like someone had tried to braid it but the rest of it just looked twisted up and knotted. Richie had clearly got frustrated and given up at that point._

_Still, Eddie felt his stomach flutter in the weird sort of aching nauseous way that it got whenever he was around Richie. “Thanks.” he reached forward to take the bracelet from Richie’s hands but he snatched them back quickly._

_“Not so fast Eds! I wanna make sure you wear it.” Richie motioned for him to hold out his arm which Eddie did with an eyeroll. With an intense look of concertation on his face Richie tied the bracelet carefully to Eddie’s wrist, careful not to make it so tight that it cut off Eddie’s circulation as he instructed him. They were so close that Eddie could count the small splatter of freckles on Richie’s nose and when Richie looked up from the bracelet to grin at him Eddie felt his heart leap up into his throat._

_“Beautiful.” Richie whispered, running his fingers lightly against Eddie’s wrist as he checked to make sure the bracelet was tied on tight. Eddie nodded mutely in agreement although it wasn’t the bracelet he had on his mind._

“Your craft skills have improved.” Eddie admitted as he thought back to the last bracelet Richie had given him. He’d worn that ugly piece of string until it fell off on his sixteenth birthday. 

“Yeah well.” Richie shrugged and looked down at him sheepishly. “Bev may or may not have helped me.” 

Eddie snorted. Now the skill of the braid made sense. “So, she basically made it for you?” 

“Hey!” Richie nudged him lightly with his elbow. “I’ll have you know I picked out the colors.” 

Eddie laughed and leaned his head back against the worn wood of the cabin. Richie was standing so close their entire sides were pressed together. Eddie watched as Richie reached down for his hand, expecting him to thread their fingers together but instead Richie rose his arm and pulled the bracelet from Eddie’s other hand. He tied it on with extreme care and Eddie’s mental timer reminded him firmly that his two minutes were up. Eddie wished (not for the first time when he was around Richie) that he was the type of person who broke the rules. 

“How long are you planning to keep this whole wooing thing up?” Eddie asked curiously. 

Richie slowly finished tying off the bracelet and looked down at him earnestly. “However long it takes until I’m forgiven.” 

Eddie looked down at the bracelet around his wrist, its new colors bright among his collection of sun faded ones. He didn’t feel angry at Richie for the ghosting anymore, it turned out that an explanation was really all he’d been wanting. 

He hadn’t realized that Richie was still worried that Eddie was harboring animosity towards him. Eddie felt a twinge of guilt as he realized he must have been a bigger dick to Richie at the beginning of summer than he’d thought. He reached up the hand Richie wasn’t holding to place it over Richie’s hand where it still rested on his arm. “I forgive you.” 

Richie practically beamed at him before leaning forward and pressing a loud kiss to Eddie’s forehead. “In that case I better go prepare my grand finale.” He pulled his hands away from Eddie slowly, walking backwards and waving jauntily with both hands. “Better get a good night’s sleep Eds!” 

Eddie watched him go with a fond shake of his head. “Not my name!” 

The kids had indeed been playing the floor is lava and Eddie had come in right when Matthew was about to leap from his top bunk across the room to John’s. One stern look from Eddie stopped that but he did let them play for ten more minutes, even joining in one the fun. His dexterity was nothing compared to the kids so he ‘died’ after a few minutes. When the only one left alive was Danny Eddie finally got them to go to bed. The kids were all so exhausted they fell asleep within minutes but Eddie was so busy thinking what could possibly be Richie’s ‘grand finale’ that he lay awake staring up into the dark for hours. 

The sound of someone repeatedly plucking a guitar string woke him and Eddie lifted his head from his pillow groggily. He pulled back the shade on the window to peek outside, it was still early gray light. Eddie rubbed the sleep from his eyes before looking at his watch, there was still half an hour before the wakeup call. 

Curiously he got to his feet, pulling on his sweatshirt with a shiver at the chilly morning air. On instinct Eddie counted his campers on his way to the door, all seven of them there and six of them sound asleep. Regie was blinking up at him sleepily so Eddie made a go back to bed motion as he quietly slipped out onto the front porch. 

Eddie froze at the top of the steps as he looked out at what had to be the whole camp standing in their pajamas in the empty space before the cabins. His eyes trailed over the group, growing wider and wider as he looked at each familiar face. Bev gave him a double thumbs up from the piggyback Ben had her in and Mike stood with Carrie’s cabin with a knowing smile. Bill and Stan stood near the back, leaning against the wall of the shower building and standing close enough that Eddie figured they were on more than good terms at this point. Campers filled in the rest of the spaces, most of them looking sleepy, some shivering. All looked excited. The sound of the door opening behind caught Eddie’s attention and he looked back over his shoulder to see his campers slip out to join him on the steps. They didn’t look surprised to see the enter camp in front of them and Eddie felt a sting of betrayal as he watched them jump around him to go join the group. 

Standing at the front of all of this was Richie, his bright green Hawiian shirt flapping in the morning breeze as he repeatedly hit one note on Mike’s guitar and grinned up at Eddie like a maniac. 

“I couldn’t get a boom box on such short notice.” Richie explained with a shrug, as if he had only just noticed Eddie’s wide-eyed look. “This will just have to do.” 

Eddie shook his head slowly, not understanding but then Richie let out a jaunty ‘one two three’ countdown and began to pluck random notes on the guitar. Before he even opened his mouth, Eddie knew with a sudden burst of clarity what song he was about to sing. Sure enough Richie starting belting out the lyrics of ‘on top of spaghetti’ with the rest of the camp chorusing along with him. 

Eddie groaned at the song choice even as he smiled so wide it felt like his face was in danger of bursting. He considered burying his face in his hands in embarrassment but he didn’t want to miss a single second of watching Richie beam at him and serenade him tunelessly. 

The campers got into the song almost as much as Richie himself (he even added in a ‘guitar solo’ that Eddie was sure made Mike want to rip the guitar from his hands it was so bad) and they finished the song with everyone doing very energetic spirit fingers. 

Eddie was torn between laughing and clapping but in the end, he ended up doing both. 

“Magnificent.” He called out causing Richie to give a half bow before motioning for the campers to bow too. Eddie continued clapping as he beamed across at Richie. If it weren’t for the fact that the entire camp was right there and that counselors were not to show any PDA in front of campers (a rule that Ben and Bev ignored a lot) Eddie would march right over there and kiss Richie. As it was his heart felt full to bursting as Richie passed the guitar to Mike who had suddenly appeared at his side, likely trying to get his instrument as far away from Richie's disastrous playing as possible. 

“What’d you think Eds? Feel sufficiently wooed now?” Richie asked as he got close enough for Eddie to hear without him shouting. 

“Oh definitely.” Eddie nodded, taking the steps down so that he was on the bottom one. He hadn’t put on his shoes before he came outside and he didn’t want to step any closer. “You out did yourself Richie.” 

Richie smiled at him and shoved his hands in his pockets. He’d just opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by a voice (Eddie would bet money it had been Georgie) yelling from the back of the campers, “Kiss!” 

Eddie watched in horror as the rest of the camp took up the cry, the chant of ‘Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!’ falling from their lips like a battle cry. His eyes flickered to Richie who shrugged with a grin, the expression on his face slightly hopeful as if to say he was game if Eddie was. 

For once Eddie let himself act without thinking. He ignored the mud on his bare feet as he stepped off the steps, he ignored the tons of children watching them, he ignored the rules that told him not to do this very thing. For the moment Eddie let himself pretend it was just him and Richie and he marched up to him, standing up on his tiptoes to wrap his hand around the back of Richie’s neck. 

“Don’t ghost me this time.” Eddie whispered as he pressed lightly with his hand for Richie to lean down. 

“Never.” Richie promised, the word still dying on his lips as Eddie kissed him. 

The campers erupted into cheers around them making Eddie and Richie both start laughing against each other's mouths before they pulled away. It wasn’t as good as their first kiss but then again that time they hadn’t had a bunch of people watching them. It wasn’t perfect as far as kisses go but it was just perfect enough for them. Plus, this kiss came with the possibility of many more kisses to come which made it the best kiss ever as far as Eddie was concerned.


	7. Chapter 7

Kissing Richie again didn’t magically make all of Eddie’s problems and fears go away but it certainly helped things. It helped even more when they managed to steal a moment that afternoon and kiss again. With every touch that passed between them Eddie felt tension drop from his shoulders and before too long the hidden fears he’d been harboring that Richie would ghost him again disappeared. 

Of course, just because they were kissing on the sly regularly now didn’t mean that Eddie was going to go easy on him when it came to capture the flag and considering that he caught another one of Richie’s campers scouting out his cabin they seemed to be on the same page. When Eddie brought it up to Richie he just grinned goofily before plastering kisses to the side of Eddie’s face and pressed him up against a tree until capture the flag was the furthest thing from Eddie’s mind. 

Summer wore on, the days seeming to pass even faster as they always did when they reached the back half of camp. This year Eddie was filled with a new dread over the steadily approaching end date of camp, he didn’t want what he and Richie had to end. 

With weeks left to go the thought was easy enough to shove from his head when he was around Richie so Eddie tried to be around him as much as he could while still doing his job. It didn’t amount to much time over all but on Sundays when the camp played their huge game Eddie always managed to snag a place on Richie’s team. 

In the stolen moments they found themselves alone they spent the time they weren’t kissing telling each other about their lives outside of camp. It was something they’d never really talked about in the past, content to live in the bubble of Camp Maturin together, but now Eddie wanted to know every single detail about Richie’s life outside of these woods. He wanted to know everything about Richie period. 

They managed to get Carrie to switch her afternoon off with Eddie so that Richie and him could have time together that was more than five minutes in the woods. Bill was even generous enough to lend them his car though he’d leveled them with a serious gaze as he’d handed Eddie the keys. 

“I won’t ask you to not have sex in my car because it's probably pointless.” Bill sighed as Eddie felt himself flush red from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. He pointedly did not look at Richie who started to make a joke but Bill cut him off with a quick ‘beep beep’ before looking between the two of them with a more somber expression than Eddie had ever seen on him. “If you do have sex in my car never _ever_ tell me.” 

“Don’t worry Big Bill!” Richie cried, leaning forward to press a wet kiss to Bill’s cheek who grimaced at Eddie as he added, “Yours and Stan’s sex car is safe.” 

Eddie shook his head and muttered ‘thanks’ to Bill before getting into the car. He was pretty sure his entire body was flushed bright red but he felt a twinge of relief as he peeked at Richie from the corner of his eye and noticed spots of color high on his cheek as well. 

“Moment of truth, let’s see how bad your music taste is Eds.” Richie grinned as Eddie started the car and Richie began to rummage through the glovebox, pulling out Bill and Eddie’s phones with a laugh. 

“I’m guessing the one without the Stark Trek sticker is yours.” Richie laughed, shoving Bill’s phone back into the glovebox and moving to turn Eddie’s phone on. 

Eddie suddenly shot his hand out to stop him, turning one handed onto the treelined drive out of camp. He’d never actually left camp during the middle of it and his heart was pounding in a weird sense of anticipation. He couldn't quite believe he was getting to leave camp and then come back so soon. Likewise, he couldn’t believe that he was going to actually get to see Richie outside of these woods, be with Richie somewhere where children weren’t running under their feet and might walk in on them at any moment. 

He didn’t want his phone on, Eddie didn’t want to see the onslaught of texts and watery voicemails from his mother that were undoubtedly waiting for him. He didn’t want the tracking app that he was sure his mom had on his phone to ping and tell her that he had left camp or was within range of service. 

“Leave it.” Eddie slowed the car to a stop so he could take his attention off the road and look over at Richie. Richie looked back at him curiously but shoved the phone back where he found it when Eddie bit his lip and admitted sheepishly, “I want to spend the day with you. No distractions.” 

A smile spread across Richie’s face as he shoved the glovebox shut with a snap. “I guess that can be arranged.” He smiled as he reached over to rest his hand lightly on Eddie’s knee and Eddie swallowed hard at the touch as he started driving again. 

“Just so you know we’re not having sex.” Eddie rushed out quickly, just in case Bill’s comment had put any ideas into Richie’s head. It wasn’t that Eddie didn’t want to, because suddenly it was all he could think about and all he wanted to do, he just wasn’t about to have his first time in the backseat of a car. Especially the same backseat where he’d once thrown up after having drank too many wine coolers. Those two memories did not need to exist in the same space. 

Richie let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Don’t worry Eddie, I promise I won’t try to seduce you.” 

Richie sounded sincere so Eddie was pretty sure he didn’t know what his hand on Eddie’s leg was doing to him. 

In all his summers at camp he’d never actually stopped in the little town at the base of its mountain. He parked in the small downtown area, on Main Street of course. Judging by the size of the town Main Street seemed pretty accurate because Eddie was willing to bet that every business in town was on it. 

Richie intertwined their fingers the moment they were both out of the car and dragged him by the hand into every single store on the block. He acted so excited and thrilled by every single thing, even in the autoshop where they pretended to be interest in the employee’s sales pitch for floormats. Everywhere they went Richie was like a kid in a candy store and by the time they actually reached the candy store Eddie thought Richie’s face might split from grinning so widely. Eddie couldn’t stop himself from pressing up onto his toes and placing a kiss against the corner of Richie’s mouth as he debated what flavor of rock candy to bring back to his campers. 

“What was that for?” Richie asked curiously, looking down at Eddie with that glorious smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling. 

Eddie shrugged feeling suddenly shy. “You’re just really cute.” 

Richie quickly settled on the blue raspberry and after paying he practically spun Eddie into the small alley between the two shops. Eddie opened his mouth to ask what he was doing but then Richie’s mouth was on his and he forgot what words were. 

This was not a stolen kiss in the seconds when no one was looking at them. This was not a few minutes of making out in the trees but always with one ear turned to listen for approaching footsteps, certain they’d be walked in on at any time. 

This was Richie’s hands cupping his face, his tongue in his mouth. This was Richie’s whole body pressed up against him pressing Eddie against the wall of a dirty alley. Eddie was so focused on the feel of Richie touching him, on the feel of the muscles of Richie’s back under his hands, that he barely even spared a thought to the bacteria that was undoubtedly on the alley’s wall. 

Another thing he had forgotten was that even though there weren’t any campers around to catch them didn’t mean there weren’t any people. 

“Get a room!” a voice yelled causing Richie and Eddie to break apart, their noses bumping against each other as they both laughed breathlessly. 

“We’ll get right on that old chap!” Richie called out, making Eddie groan at the British Voice. 

“Way to kill the mood.” he laughed, dropping his head against Richie’s chest. “It’s a good thing we don’t have a room.” 

“We might not have a room.” Richie agreed, back to his normal voice as he grinned down at Eddie wickedly, “But we do have a car.” 

They drove out to a small lake, more of a pond really, nearly five miles outside of town. There were a few picnic tables around and a grill pit but there were no other cars or people in sight so after parking Eddie crawled into the backseat with Richie. He’d meant what he’d said and he wasn’t about to have sex with Richie back there but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy laying half on top of Richie while they kissed or the way that Richie’s breath would hitch whenever Eddie shifted his hips even an inch. 

“Okay okay.” Richie panted some indeterminable time later. “We need to take a break.” His pulse was pounding under Eddie’s lips as he pressed kisses to his neck. “Eddie.” Richie all but moaned causing Eddie to smile against his skin. That was a noise he could get used to hearing. 

He pulled away from Richie to rest his head on Richie’s chest, certain that his own heart was pounding just as loudly. 

“Tell me a secret.” Eddie whispered, running his fingers up and down Richie’s arm and making him shiver. 

Running the fingers of his free hand through Eddie’s hair Richie paused for a long moment, long enough that Eddie was beginning to think he wasn’t going to play his game. Eddie looked up at him curiously, surprised when Richie blushed and traced Eddie’s cheekbone with his thumb. 

“I don’t want this to end.” Richie admitted on a breath. 

Eddie’s heart fluttered and leapt with joy in his chest and he leaned his face into Richie’s palm as he agreed, “Me neither.” he took a deep breath to steel himself before whispering, “So let’s not end it.” 

A smile broke across Richie’s face before he kissed Eddie in agreement. 

Several days later a thunderstorm shook the cabins all night, causing Eddie’s campers to whimper and clamber into a dog pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. Eddie tried to keep them all calm and eventually they all fell into fitful sleep around him as Eddie leaned back and watched through the window as lightening raced across the sky. 

There’s were ten days left of camp and Eddie’s heart pounded as he watched his watch flick to 12:01am. 

Nine days left. They were officially in the single digits. 

Life and responsibilities beckoned on the other side of those nine days but for now Eddie let himself savor the fact that he still had nine whole days of summer to be truly free. 

The lightening was gone in the morning but the rain remained leaving the sky a dull gray and the grounds a waterlogged muddy mess. 

Matthew slipped on the way to the mess hall and it somehow resulted in a mud flinging fight that Eddie was only just able to get under control. After everyone had showered and changed, he finally managed to get his campers into the mess hall where board game and puzzles had been set up on the tables. 

John darted off in Stan’s direction and the rest of Eddie’s campers scattered off to various games and friends, only Regie sticking by him. 

“Looks like it's just you and me kid.” Eddie said ruffling Regie’s hair affectionately as he pulled Eddie after him to an unused checkers board in the corner. 

“And me!” 

Eddie started as Richie smacked a kiss against his cheek, his face blushing even as Regie laughed. “Campers Richie.” Eddie reminded him, _again_. 

“Right right, sorry Reg.” Richie sighed loudly as he sat down sideways on the bench next to Eddie, scooting closer so that his knee was bumping Eddie’s thigh. 

“It's okay.” Regie shrugged carelessly as he set up the checker board, his brow furrowed in concentration. 

Eddie reached out to set up the red pieces in front of him and tried to follow Richie’s string of chatter as he placed his hand on Eddie’s back and started running his fingers down his spine. 

He knew one good thing that would happen in nine days. There’d be no more rule about PDA and nothing to stop Eddie from jumping on Richie when he did things like that. 

Well, nothing except common courtesy but as Eddie shivered at Richie’s touch, he was beginning to think courtesy was a bit overrated these days. 

Miracle of miracles with one week left of camp they found another flag. 

It was totally by accident too which made the boys even more thrilled about it. 

They’d been walking by Pine cabin to head out to the tennis courts when Steven had stopped cold, tugging on Eddie’s arm and pointing to the edge of the cabin where a scrap of green fabric could be seen peeking out from the corner of a piece of siding. Eddie had stood guard while they pried it loose with a heavy rush of pride in his chest. The last two years his cabin hadn’t even managed to hold onto their flag and this year they’d done that and got two others. 

Things were changing this summer but for once the thought didn’t fill Eddie with sadness, maybe because so far it all seemed to be for the better. 

He’d been in such a good mood from the capture of a second flag that when Dorsey asked him if he would do the ropes course so that they could all watch, Eddie agreed without protest, their little faces beaming up at him like he’d just given them a basketful of puppies. 

The next day when Mike was helping his fasten his harness Eddie wasn’t feeling quite so good about the whole thing. 

“I’m going to die.” Eddie groaned as he fastened his helmet. 

Mike rolled his eyes at his dramatics and motioned for Eddie to tilt his head back so he could tug on the helmet’s strap and make sure it was secure. “You’ve done this a hundred times Eddie, you won’t die.” 

“False, I’ve done this ten times.” Eddie grumbled shaking out his hands as Mike finished tugging on various bits of his harness. 

“Then you’ve cheated death ten times.” Mike smiled, tapping him on the helmet. “What’s one more time?” 

Mike’s words echoing in his head Eddie accepted high-fives from his campers and shoved down his nerves, navigating the first few obstacles of the course with ease. The further he went the higher up the course got and Eddie was so focused on putting one foot in front of the other and not looking down that before he knew it, he was reaching the skybridge. 

Eddie sighed and shifted the clips connecting his harness to the course to the cables hanging above the bridge. He reminded himself what Mike had said about cheating death and he glared at the bridge as if it had personally wronged him, which in Eddie’s opinion, it had. He was just about to start his slow process across the bridge when he heard a cry from below him. 

“Andale Eduardo!” 

Despite his better judgement Eddie looked down, surprised to see Richie standing with his campers and holding his thumbs up as he cheered. Looking down usually made Eddie dizzy and sick but seeing Richie below him made his energy zing and Eddie took a deep breath as he held tight to the cables of his harness. 

“Just a stupid bridge.” he whispered to himself and then before he could let himself think it through, he let out a yell and raced across the skybridge, his feet easily flying over the boards, despite the large gaps between them. 

Eddie blinked as he found himself on the opposite platform, looking around in confusion. It usually took him at least two minutes to inch his way across the bridge and yet here he was, already on the other side. He heard cheering from below him, Mike and Richie loudest of all, as Eddie made it through the last bit of the course. HIs adrenaline was even higher than usual as he soared down the zipline and found himself back on solid ground. 

He’d barely got his feet underneath him and he was still attached to the zipline when Richie suddenly barreled into his side, peppering the side of his helmet with kisses. 

“That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen you do.” Richie whispered causing Eddie to laugh in response. He would have tugged Richie down to kiss him but his campers were suddenly throwing themselves into a group hug around him. Eddie hugged them all back but he didn’t let go of Richie’s hand to do so. 

The last week of camp passed by in a blur, too many moments the ‘last’ moment of the summer. The last kayak ride, the last time the girls in Oak would thoroughly defeat them in soccer, the last time (hopefully) Eddie saw a camper squirt bug juice out of their nose. 

At the last of the camper’s plays Richie somehow managed to make it so that their cabins were sitting with each other and he managed to squeeze himself onto the bench next to Eddie. They held hands and flinched at all of the bad acting even though Eddie secretly thought it was adorable. At one point he was pretty sure that he saw Richie actually brush away a tear and he was torn between finding it cute and teasing him about it. In the end he decided to do both and Richie pretended to pout about it until they were leaving the cabin and with no one around for a moment he pressed a quick kiss to Eddie’s lips, nipping his bottom lip playfully as he whispered, “I like it when you tease me Eds.” 

Eddie was too busy blushing at the huskiness of Richie’s voice to yell at him for the nickname. 

On the last big hike of the season Eddie had to pull Dorsey away from poison oak three separate times. Apparently, he wanted to sneak some into his brother’s bed when they got home. 

“I’ve kept you all rash free this far we’re making it to the end of summer.” Eddie sighed pulling Dorsey away yet again. “You’ll just have to find a different way to terrorize your brother.” 

Sometimes Eddie was really glad he was an only child. 

They were all taking a much-needed break when Richie motioned for him to follow him to the tree line. Since Stan was currently regaling his cabin with bird facts Eddie left him in charge and followed Richie curiously. 

“I can’t wait any longer.” Richie grabbed Eddie’s hand and pulled him to him, pressing a kiss against his lips. Eddie opened his mouth expecting Richie to keep going but instead he pulled away and looked down at Eddie shyly, running his thumb lightly over Eddie’s bottom lip. 

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Richie suddenly blurted, his cheeks going red even as he looked down at Eddie seriously. “And not like my camp boyfriend, my boyfriend boyfriend.” 

They hadn’t talked about dating after camp other than the makeout session in Bill’s car but Eddie had known that he wanted to be Richie’s boyfriend for years, they’d both just needed to stop being idiots and get on the same page first. 

“Yes. Yeah sure of course.” Eddie rushed out, saying yes four different ways because when it came to Richie, he always seemed to be all in, all of the time. 

He doesn’t want this thing between them to end when the camp does, he never did. He likes Richie too much and for far too long to ever keep their relationship confined to summer now that they have one. Eddie wants to know what it's like to love Richie in every season. He wants to see what he looks like bundled up in winter clothes. He wants to share an umbrella with Richie and complain that he’s too tall. He wants to know what his face looks like when its flushed from the cold. He wants, he wants, he _wants_. 

Eddie can’t seem to get any of that into words so instead he settles for kissing Richie and hoping he can feel it on his lips instead. 

At the last campfire Mike refused to let Richie play his guitar but he still somehow managed to lead the camp in singing ‘on top of spaghetti’. Eddie sang along even as he rolled his eyes and groaned about it. 

His campers gorge themselves silly on smores and at Regie’s insistence Eddie actually eats a smores with a roasted marshmallow. He tried not to think about the germs he’s undoubtedly ingesting and refused to look at Bill’s smug face as he realized that warm smores where way better than cold ones. 

The boys wanted to go look for more flags but, in the end, they settled for just trying to protect their own. Eddie let them stay up way later than usual to peek out the window and make sure no one was coming to try to take their flags away from them. They all crashed out around eleven and even though he knew he didn’t have too, Eddie stayed up another three hours to keep watch and make sure they made it through the summer with their flag. 

In the end they didn’t win, not that Eddie had suspected them too with three flags. He tried to reassure them that three flags was actually pretty great and the fact that they’d held onto their own was reason enough to be proud. He didn’t think any of them really believed him as they watched Ben’s cabin cheer for their victory. 

Their downtrodden moods about the game didn’t last too long because soon they were all back in the cabin and shoving forgotten things into bags and hugging each other goodbye and Eddie was on his stomach digging stray socks and Adam’s lanyard out from underneath the bunks as the boys packed to leave the cabin in as similar a flurry as they’d arrived. 

Parents’ cars started arriving and Eddie walked his campers up to the parking area and tried to keep a smile plastered on his face. Even though he wouldn’t be leaving camp until midafternoon tomorrow camper departure was always a bittersweet day. 

He helped shove bags into trunks and accepted a variety of high-fives and hugs from his campers as they left, most of them telling him they hoped they were in his cabin next year. Eddie’s heart was both full of joy and melancholy as he helped one of Regie’s moms fit his bag into their car. He was just shutting the trunk when Regie was suddenly wrapping himself around Eddie’s waist in a quick but incredibly tight hug. 

“See you next summer!” Regie called happily before pulling away and getting into the car. Eddie watched him go proudly, proving his theory once again that the ones that cried at arrival were usually the ones who loved camp the most. Regie might have cried at drop-off but he didn’t shed a single tear at departure which Eddie thought was a pretty tough feat, he knew from experience that the first goodbye was the hardest. 

_After spending his whole summer getting to run around and taste what it really felt like to be a kid Eddie was about to get in the Denbroughs’ car and head back to his mother’s house where she would likely lock him up for months. Who even knew if she’d let him return next summer._

_Eddie tried not to think about that as Richie hugged him so tightly that it hurt, his knobby bones digging into Eddie’s flesh as they clung to each other. Eddie blinked back tears as they finally pulled apart, knowing if he started crying now, he would never stop._

_Richie must have seen the pain on Eddie’s face anyway because he reached up to pinch Eddie’s cheek, a goofy smile stretching across his face despite the pain Eddie could see looming behind his glasses._

_“Don’t worry Eds, I’d never forget a face this cute!”_

_Eddie smacked his hand away with a roll of his eyes that turned into a groan of disgust as Richie leaned over to kiss his cheek. It was dumb but it still made Eddie feel better and brave enough to get into the car that would take him back to his life._

After ten weeks of children laughing and running amuck underfoot the camp felt like a ghost town in their absence. 

The staff all stayed an extra day to clean up the cabins and lock the place up for the season. Taking a break for lunch the Losers all got to sit together for the first time since the campers arrived and Eddie was having a hard time actually eating anything he was laughing so often. 

Richie gave Stan and Bill a hell of a time when he noticed them holding hands despite the fact that he was holding Eddie’s hand the whole time. He only stopped his teasing when the other six all said at the same time, “Beep beep Richie.” 

Richie pouted until Eddie rolled his eyes and leaned in to kiss his cheek. Richie turned his head at the last moment and Eddie’s kiss fell against the corner of his mouth causing Richie to grin and Eddie to sigh fondly. 

“You two are so cute.” Bev sighed, resting her head on Ben’s arm. 

“Yeah I just hope Mrs. K handles the news well.” Richie slung his arm around Eddie’s shoulders as Eddie glared at him. He’d hoped Richie would have outgrown the mom jokes by now. “I doubt she’d be very into sharing.” 

“Gross Richie.” Eddie sighed, wiggling out from underneath his arm. “Remind me why I’m dating you?” 

“Cause you love me.” Richie said proudly, putting his arm back around Eddie’s shoulders. 

This time Eddie didn’t shake him off because despite his horrible fashion sense and ill-advised decidedly _not_ funny jokes, Richie was right. 

After spending the afternoon packing their things and cleaning out the cabins Eddie was not at all surprised when he looked up from folding his socks to see Richie grinning in his open doorway before he tossed his bag onto the bed across from Eddie’s. 

When Richie had whispered in his ear that morning that he was looking forward to spending the night with Eddie he’d realized that Richie had every intention of sleeping in his cabin that night even though they were totally not supposed to do that. Eddie had decided he was long overdue with breaking some rules at camp so Eddie didn’t even pretend to protest, he just tucked his folded socks into his bag before turning and letting Richie pull him into his embrace. 

“You really shouldn’t be here.” Eddie managed to get out in between kisses. He figured to keep up appearances he might want to protest a _little_. 

“Why not?” Richie asked, trailing kisses down Eddie’s neck. “My cabin is all clean. Now there’s one less to finish in the morning. Really I’m doing everyone a favor.” 

“Hard to argue with that logic.” Eddie agreed, pulling away from Richie long enough to shut the still open door. 

They shoved a bunch of tables together in the center of the mess hall to eat dinner in one big cluster of laughter and shared food, trading stories back and forth. Eddie blushed bright red when Carrie declared Richie's camp wide serenade will go down in history and Richie positively beamed at him. They stay in the mess hall long after the last person was done eating because they knew once they left they only had hours left until camp was truly over for them too. Of course, the hours were slipping away whether they were in the mess hall or not but it seemed easier to face them together. 

Finally, they began to drift off in pairs of twos or threes and Eddie and Richie slipped out the door hand in hand with a promise to see the rest of the Losers later. The cabin felt both bigger and smaller with all those empty beds and Richie sat beside Eddie on his bunk and helped him carefully remove all of the artwork he’d stuck up during his wooing days. 

“I still can’t believe you did all this for me.” Eddie admitted as he carefully tucked the stack of papers into his bag. He blushed as he looked up at Richie, “I was such a dick to you this summer.” 

“Just the first half.” Richie grinned before rubbing the back of his hand sheepishly. “Anyway, I deserved it.” 

“No, you didn’t.” Eddie began ready to argue this point for hours if need be but Richie stopped him with a wave of his hand. 

“You forgive me, I forgive you. Bygones Eddie. Bygones.” Richie smiled at him so sincerely that the words slipped out of Eddie’s mouth completely unbidden, a thought he’d barely even let himself focus on. 

“I love you.” 

The words hung heavy in the air for just long enough for Eddie to blush red enough to resemble a tomato but then Richie was saying, “Fuck, I love you too.” and then they were kissing and pulling at each other’s clothes and all other thoughts except how much he loved Richie fled from his mind. 

It was dark by the time Bill came to fetch them, looking not even slightly surprised to find Richie in Eddie’s cabin. They already had their swim trunks on, seeing no need to put their regular clothes back on once they’d taken them off so they followed Bill out into the dark where the others already waited. 

As the other counselors jumped off the docks into the water or hung around in the shallows the Losers all headed over to the rope swing where one by one, they swung out into the darkness and dropped into the lake. They spent quite a lot of time splashing each other and playing and Eddie wished not for the first time that he could be with these people all of the time, that he could see them every day outside of camp. They had promised to get together during the year and now that they were older and had cars and no one in the group was fighting Eddie really hoped that they would actually keep those promises. 

They began to drift apart after a while, in pairs or towards the rest of the counselors near the buoys. Eddie could only just make out their shapes in the dark but it was okay, he still knew they were there. 

Richie had his hand in his and he used his grip on Eddie to tug him after him towards the end of the dock. They treaded water and Eddie waited for Richie to lead them around to the ladder but instead he grinned wickedly and pulled a pocketknife from the pocket of his trunks. 

Eddie raised his brows and opened his mouth, to question or to protest he wasn’t sure but then Richie put his finger to his lips before turning and beginning to carve into edge of the wood, the part facing the water where no one was likely to see it unless they knew where to look. Eddie watched him in fond exasperation as Richie finished his carving and flicked the knife closed. 

Eddie reached out to trace the newly formed letters with his finger, _R + E_. 

He knew he should be mad at Richie for defacing camp property but all he felt was a lightness in his chest. He’d fallen in love with Richie at Camp Maturin, it seemed fitting that they leave a mark of their love on the camp. 

Shivering, Eddie led Richie over to the ladder as the cold finally began to sink into his skin. Richie grabbed their towels from the pile and wrapped both of them up under them as they sat down at the end of the dock, their legs dangling down into the water and the stars shining down on them so like that fateful night three years ago. There was one noticeable difference though. This time when Eddie leaned over to kiss him, he had no fear of how Richie would react. 

This time he knew he’d kiss him back. 

And then, because its Richie, he also pulled both of them off the dock and back into the water. Eddie emerged annoyed and spluttering like a cat but one look at Richie smiling at him across the moonlight reflecting water was all it took for the anger to dissipate. 

He’d never really been able to stay mad when Richie was concerned. 

And Eddie knows they have a lot to figure out; his mom, their separate colleges, the fact that they’ll be living two hours away and neither of them owned a car. He knows all of this and much more but none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was Richie’s hands on his waist and Richie’s eyes bright and squinting without his glasses and Richie’s mouth on his. 

Richie tasted like chapstick and smoke. 

Like marshmallows and lake water. 

Like summer. 

Like home.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @lumierelalune


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